Day 2 Day radishes

October 15/ Birthday

This is year 70 plus day one. Boy has it been fun. I have accidentally erased my blog on the Calligan party. But NoName has written it up very well. So if you are interested go to

www.expatprincess.wordpress.com

 

To go out to dinner at Campagne on Saturday night my girls, and my son-in-law each wore clothes that I had made in the past. I am sure that this came about because when one daughter asked how would I like my funeral to be run, I responded that I would like things I made over the years displayed. I have a large body of handcrafts that I have made and maybe people would see what I have been doing all these years. Well this need for my work to be displayed has been fulfilled. We can skip that part of the funeral.

One daughter wore a navy swing coat that I had made her in college and while she did like it, I think it was not in the frame of what a Berkeley junior thought she should be wearing no matter from what prospective you looked. But in fact, that coat still did look well constructed and current.

NoName wore this quilted coat/jacket I had made from bits and pieces of either old clothing or scraps from making something else, in one case jockey shorts. I would wear this coat with jeans, and the coat never stayed on my shoulders. But I could never throw it away as it had a piece of Margaret’s dress she wore to nursery school. Also It had a piece from a shirt in which my husband had looked very handsome. The best part of the coat/jacket was that it had velvet pockets, and my hands always felt elegant. People would stop me on the street saying how fascinating they thought the coat was.

Poor Margaret wore my tour de force. This was a sweater that I knit wrist to wrist in the style of designer Kaffe Fasset. I used over 30 different yarns, maybe 50, and made a bordello flame design. Once you knit this sweater you are in an elite club of knitters. It was hard and it took a long time. But the sweater was never right. It hung all wrong, the ends of the yarns, though knit into the sweater, started sticking out. Because of this, I never really wore this sweater very much. It was enough to have knit it. What should have happened is that the sweater should have been hung on a wall for decoration. The sweater looked like a bolero on tall Margaret.

Bill, the chauffeur, wore a sweater that I knit him, and while a little dated, it still looked like a regular sweater. Margaret had bought him a chauffeur’s cap.

I saw these daughter’s dressed up in these outfits and I realized what they had been trying for years to tell me, they had a kookie mother. I always considered myself a little free spirited, but the fact of the matter is, they were right, I am a kookie mother. At this late date, I would like to say publicly, I am sorry that I drove you nuts all those years. And my sister sent me this hat which did nothing to discourage the appearance.

Anytime someone sends you a pasties for a hat, I think you ought to wear it.

The dinner was great fun. The restaurant was all that I hoped it would be. I had pate, pickled seasonal vegetables with mackerel, roast duck, and a cheese course. It was deeeevine. I shall never forget how well the wine went with the duck. I never want to know how much this meal cost. But I will say that I am going to make every effort to be in good form for my 80^th birthday, because I want to do it all over again.

may 11/ Mother's Day

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 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.

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.

May 5/ Mother's Day on Cinco de Mayo

My daughter NoName on her blog

www.expatprincess.wordpress.com

has had an entry on the topic Mother’s Day. This is an obligatory day of presents and festivities of which the Mother should do nothing. If a woman has a mother, if a woman has had a child, if a woman is in the throws of trying to conceive, she needs to be rewarded. A few years I got an A for effort. Italy has a Woman’s Day in March. We do not have a wife day in America. Well we have anniversaries, which by the way also include presents, but no servitude. We have birthdays, which also are obligatory gift days. And none of this, “ I don’t need anything.”

A washing machine does not count as a gift, a new roof does not count as a gift. The blender she had to replace last week does not count as a gift. Our neighbor’s son had a birthday and cigars were suggested, with a suggested a minimum price point of $13.00. There are no minimum suggestions here, but if you give only a card, it must be well crafted and very sincere and to the point. Jobs completed do count as gifts, such as the hanging hooks and some holes dug in the garden.

I see my daughter’s working so hard at being mother’s, I want to give them gifts. I might settle for a nice dinner of no participation on their part.

Fathers are really, really important, but Father’s do not care as much about Father’s Day. At least my husband didn’t. Oh goodness another tie.

Not changing diapers was its own reward, if you are not a Mother. But I think it is okay if secretly, you go out and buy a new pair of gold earrings.

This is my Mother's college picture.

April 6/2008

Happy Birthday Meredith!

Love, Mom and Dad

March 24/ Hallelujah

We attended church yesterday at Grace Presbyterian, a very large church.  My sister tells me it is not a Mega Church, but yesterday there could have been more than one thousand attendees. The lovely library is twice the size of my church at home, as was the chapel.  A choir of fifty sang, and at the end of the service the congregation was invited to come up and join the choir, to sing the Hallelujah chorus.  At the last minute I decided to go up.  One of the reasons that held me back, is that I was dressed in urine green.  The choir was in red. The women waved me up to stand next to them and they opened a space for me. One woman came up to me and  gave me the sheet music. I forgot that I did not know how to read music, I thought we were going to sing the hymn version, and the woman next to me had to keep pointing to where we were in the piece.  I did not know whether to try to sing alto or with the men in the tenor bass section, in which case it was a lower line.  It was a lot of fun and I sang the Hallelujah chorus with all my heart.

This is my sister and brother in law.  There is a living cross decorated with flowers. 

March17/St. Paddy's Day

St. Paddy’s Day is here, and our St Paddy’s party is over. Mr. Radish was not here and it was harder to carry on by ourselves. He keeps the music going, and he keeps the Irish whiskey and beer flowing. My son-in-law, Bill, stepped in to fill the barkeep shoes buying mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Then he made this vile green Midori sour cocktail. He backed up this plan with Irish beer.

Not of Irish descent, he asked what St. Patrick’s Day meant to us. It was hard to explain. We had to think. My girls said, “a party”. It is one of those things, which I would say, you had to have been there. My husband has always loved the holiday, because it meant a lot of merriment to him. But also his grandparents, or great grandparents came from Ireland. He admired his Catholic grandfather who went to church every day. He admired what the man became, by his own work. He admired that he had a group of men over to play poker every week, offered a full bar, but did not drink himself.

Last night we had baked corned beef, and roasted, quartered potatoes with rosemary. The children did not like the corned beef, and one child was dubious about the potatoes. We said, “You have to eat them, they are Irish.” He asked, “Why?”

Then we tried to tell him about the Irish being poor, and all they could grow were potatoes. And then the potatoes would not grow, and they were very hungry, and many Irish moved to the United States. It is the Irish Americans who really started the holiday. In Ireland St. Patrick’s Day was just a plain old saint day.

In addition to wearing the name Calligan, my mother’s name was Ireland although she was probably German. We think her family got to Ellis Island and the name was too hard to understand, so they probably, in an effort to push through, just said their name was Ireland. If my sister reads this, she may weigh in. We now have two grandchildren whose first or second name is Calligan, and one granddaughter whose middle name is Ireland.

The story of the Irish in America is slipping away. Next year we will have a history lesson.

February 17/ Valentine's Day

We had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. We had a dinner party for six. With the dispensation we gave ourselves on Valentine’s for Lent, it was a good party: wine, pork stew (titled Cheap and Tasty Pork Stew), carrots, wine, wine, salad, wine and bitter lemon pie. I laughed all evening.

But equally important was the rest of the day. We went out to breakfast, Mr. Radish took me to a knitting store, and Costco. What more could a woman ask? I bought myself red roses at Costco, not knowing he was going to buy me flowers, but if he did, these were cheaper. I finished his socks about one hour before I gave them to him. Just before the party started Mr. Radish gave me a home made DVD of old romantic songs of Frankie, Ella, and Tony Bennett from recently his recently negotiated ITunes. Drinking music, dancing music. He had even printed the a label on the DVD “Valentine‘s Day 2008,” by that I mean printed on the disk itself. I was impressed, and he was pleased. He said that he was surprised how many songs you could record on a DVD disk. He went to put the DVD in the player, and he stopped just short of the CD player, and said, “Oh I forgot, we don’t have a DVD player”.

Such is an senior Valentine’s Day. Now we have a great DVD for road trips in the car.

January 1/ New Year's

Happy New Year. When our family lived in northern California, on New Year’s day we went to a coast park to watch for whales. Sighting a whale was a very iffy thing as they migrated much later in the spring. None-the-less, it got everyone out of the house and into fresh air, and the walk included a hill which somewhat tamed wild kids. If you were to see a whale, it was good luck for you the whole rest of the year. And just in case, you did not spot a whale, lentil soup was served for dinner to bring good luck.

Today we drove out to the town of La Conner to eat lunch. While whales do occassionally come to our little bay by our house, no one would think of searching for the whales on New Year’s here. On the drive to La Conner the huge flock of snow geese were actually at the nature preserve. People parked cars along the road and drove into the park to observe. Most people had humongous telephoto lens. I had only my little camera I keep in my purse. The light was low and the clouds were interesting. What a high! Here is a picture. We felt like we had spotted a whale. I know my husband and I will have good luck this coming year. But in just in case the geese do not count for luck, there is bean, pumpkin soup with cilantro for dinner.

Actually I am exhausted from all this working with pictures.  I will try tomorrow,

December 16/ Budding photography

The group is gone. So it is silent, but . . . not, as the Football is on. Seattle lost, Green Bay won, Baltimore lost. The dishes are washed, and the counters are passably clean. The breakfast strata pot sits in the sink taking days to clean clean. Leftover ham and sweet potatoes are wrapped in the frig. Not too many takers for the minted broccoli puree. Red candle wax lies pooled on the table cloth, and the candlesticks, likewise the table. My husband scooped up a dust pan full of ham, eggs sweet potato, cantaloupe, tomato and bacon where the toddler dined. Where I cooked, and the older boys ate there was a second dustpan full. The boys had three Shirley Temples a piece; we might have had three bottles of wine a piece. Presents were opened. Traditional persimmon pudding was served. Wait! Is this Christmas? No, it was my husband’s birthday!

The photos were taken by Gabriel and George.  Gabe is 8, and George is 3 plus.  Both of them came a long way with their photography skills.  The last three pictures are by the 3 1/2 year old. 

December 13/ Office Party

After my father died, my husband in addition to his real job, took what was left of my father’s business, and continued it.  Firewater was the company, and he sold an additive to water to reduce it’s water tension.  This product has long ago become outmoded in the fire industry.  It is still used for things like mattress fires, small brush fires, and washing fire engines. We still occasionally get orders, and for us it is a reason to clap, as we think every order is our last. 

About twenty years ago, it had been a very hard year for us, we decided while in San Francisco, to have our own, two person, Firewater Christmas office party.  The first year we went to a very on-the-edge restaurant, Ella’s.  As customers we were in over our heads. We were certainly the only people in our income group. But that did not stop us from playing rich.  We ate and drank and ordered from all parts of the menu.  The bill was outrageously large. The food  was fabulous. 

Since that year, we have continued to have a two person Christmas party, just because we are us, and because my husband works from home.  I do take him coffee, and answer the phone about twice a year.  But last year and this year we have invited daughter’s. Yesterday was the Firewater/Office lunch at Cafe
Campagne in Seattle.  It was the best of Christmas parties: good wine, French food, cozy bistro atmosphere, our own pretty women, excellent family talk.  The best. I recommend, now that the Christmas crunch is on, you go out with your spouse alone for lunch or dinner, and have a Christmas Office party.  You can think of running your marriage and/or family as a business.  If you are single, have a CEO party.   Here are the rules.  There has to be good drink, very good food, and the bill has to hurt a little.   

PS.  NoName we missed you.