But hadn't expected it to happen this soon.....the day immediately after the Mavericks were eliminated? 

Don said he wouldn't be surprised to see an almost complete turnover in the team's roster.

Wonder if that'd include Jason Kidd?  Goodness knows I haven't thought he was that much of an asset.  But then, I tend to think it's idiotic to assume one can take someone who is performing well with Team X, plop 'em in Team Z, and expect the same results.  It's a TEAM.  Often it's the interaction of those particular players that causes one or more of them to shine.  Remove them from the team, however, and the shine dims.

Were the Mavericks going to lose, I was pleased they lost to New Orleans, a city that needs all the bright spots it can get.

The strap on my purse had made a determined effort to tear completely away, so that - combined with the general wear and tear had suffered, which was considerable, as I don't change purses but use the same one every day - it had become of paramount importance to buy a new one.  So off to the mall I went.

After a lengthy, frustrating search I finally found one.  It's actually a bit on the small side, as I discovered when I put my overstuffed wallet in the middle compartment, but that's too bad.  I'll manage.

Why is it so blasted difficult to find a decent purse?  I don't want one the size of a suitcase, or that straps onto one's back like a knapsack, or with huge buckles, or made of some peculiar pattern, or crocheted.  These caveats eliminated a good 90% of the purses offered for sale.

I want a zippered compartment on the outside to hold my keys so I needn't dig into the purse proper for them, and a place for my cell phone, so I've a fighting chance of hearing it ring.  I want a shoulder strap.  I want it to be black or brown.  A moderate size.

Plus it shouldn't cost a penny over $40.  I'm not only picky, I'm cheap.

Picky and cheap.  Not a terrific combination.

Finally found something reasonably suitable at Penney's.  Fossil makes some nice ones, but Fossil's also dreadfully proud of 'em, and prices them accordingly. 

Now I've got this purse I'm going to have to go ahead and buy the new camera I've been wanting (one of the tiny ones) for it's a cinch my Canon S3 isn't going to fit into it.

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This is TAKS test week for the public schools, so it's TAKS test week for Dmitry, too.  Yesterday he took the English test, which he said he believes he did quite well on.  Tomorrow he takes the Big Kahuna....the math TAKS. 

Frankly, the chances of him passing it are slim, I'm afraid.  He's afraid of it, too, and worries and frets about what he'll do if he can never pass the TAKS so as to be able to graduate.  I tell him we'll think of something, and not to fret himself to flinders over it. 

I do loathe these ghastly exams, and am pleased the state's about to do away with them.  At least in their present form.

The pressure on the kids at the school to do well - at least pass - is intense, as a school's charter is dependent upon it.  Do poorly too many years in a row and it's yanked.  IMO it's totally unreasonable to expect schools that cater to those who don't do well in the regular public schools to perform at the same rate as schools in areas such as Highland Park over in Dallas. 

---

I was very depressed to realize Dmitry and Carolyn's Anniversary Weekend came and went without my taking a single photo of them.  Yes, this past Monday marked the one year anniversary of their meeting, and they're still going strong.  On Friday he went over to her house, carrying with him a baker's dozen of roses (twelve red and one white, in the middle).  On Saturday he gave her another dozen roses, and took her to Olive Garden for dinner, then to Border's.  On Sunday he was back over at her house, as her grandfather - who'd been visiting - was leaving that evening, and Carolyn wanted to be with him.  On Monday (school was out) I went on the bus trip with my Woman's Club group to Granbury, and as soon as I set foot in the door (a few minutes after 4 p.m.) he leapt up, anxiously asking if we could go fetch Carolyn and Ravinn from the latter's house and take them to Ridgmar Mall.

And not one photograph did I take to mark their anniversary!  I'm losing my touch.

Back in the early 70's and for several years afterward, I eagerly got the Bake-Off cookbooks (well, those small 'zines found at the supermarket check-out line) to find reasonably easy, tasty recipes.  Some of them I make still (a stroganoff bake using crescent roll dough, for instance).  The recipes usually called for basic ingredients.

Apparently after all these years the "basic" combinations have been used, leaving the strange ones.  Yesterday I was at a store and thumbed through the new Bake-Off cookbook; here's a sampling of the type of recipes found within it:

• Orange Marmelade-Chorizo Pizza
• Tropical Crab Rangoon Appetizers
• Cravin' Crab Enchiladas
• Peanut Butter Mole Enchiladas

And these are the winners? 

Where are Tasty Tuna Cups, eh?  Burger Bundles?  That sort of thing?  The stuff ordinary people might actually cook and eat.

An excited Benjamin, preparing for his maiden flight:

Woo-hoo!  Away he goes!

Both Bethany and Bryson took a turn, as well; the photo of Bethany was awfully fuzzy, unfortunately.

Now Benjamin's an official flyer, with a certificate to prove it:

The whole Kloesel crew with the pilot and his son:

Boy, I wish I'd been there.  Oh well!  Perhaps another time.

Well, the airplane, that is.

My grandson, Benjamin, loves airplanes (really, all forms of transportation) so the father of one of his parents' friends owns a small airplane (1946 something or other) and generously offered to take him up.  When I'd first heard about the proposed treat I'd told Matt I certainly wanted to be there for this, Benjamin's maiden flight.

It took awhile but at last the plans were hammered down.

Yesterday.  In Granbury.  At 7 a.m. 

Um....I finally decided that considering my inability to sleep at all if I have to awaken unusually early, and with my first whirl as (volunteer) assistant to one of the church's wedding directors scheduled for the afternoon, it'd be most prudent to give the outing a miss.  Matt promised faithfully that there would be videos and stills galore, so I regretfully said not to look for me.

ARGHHHH!  BAD DECISION!!!

Not only did Benjamin go up, but also Bethany, Bryson, Matt and Kirstin.    What a wealth of photo ops! 

Bryson was apparently quite intrigued by all the gadgets and gizmos, particularly the joystick-type thing, and he wasn't bashful about trying it out. To the point the pilot landed the airplane a bit more hastily than usual, fearing what Bryson was doing up in front.  Kirstin said she didn't perfectly understand what it was Bryson had done - or might have done - but some other pilots present chuckled about it.

That's Bryson for you! 

************************
At 3:30 I showed up at the church, realizing as I did that I didn't know which sanctuary was the site for the wedding, nor who the wedding director was, or anything. Naturally I parked next to the large sanctuary on the east side of the church, only to find that the action was in the small sanctuary, on the west side.  Oh well.  The exercise is good for me, I told myself.

Located Micah, the wedding director, without any difficulty, only to discover she wasn't aware she was going to have a volunteer with her. It wasn't a very large or elaborate wedding, so there wasn't really much for me to do, particularly as I didn't have a clue what was going on.  Perhaps that's just as well, though.  Get one's feet wet first, instead of being thrown into the deep end of the pool.

The most frustrating thing was that darned if I didn't miss myriad more photo ops! 

So many visual vignettes popped up....the bride in her gown, with the train tossed up over her shoulder, skittering into the hall and to the ladies' room, for instance. The bride and her bridesmaids (eight of 'em!) squatting down (so as not to crease their dresses by kneeling, I suppose) while waiting for the procession to start.  And my personal favorite was after the procession had begun and it was almost time for the bride and her father to enter the sanctuary, darned if her father's cell phone didn't ring and he took the call!  There he was, phone pressed to his ear, his head down, shoulders hunched, turning away from the sanctuary doors and coming back toward me, with his daughter staring after him.  The expression on her face will live on in my memory for years.  "DADDY!" it simply shrieked.

To be fair, from the bit I could hear I think it had something to do with the reception, but I'd still have thought he'd have turned his phone off by the time the bridesmaids were making their way down the aisle, y'know? 

And it wasn't as bad as it could have been!  Messed up the gutters some, and probably didn't help the roof any, but the roof's in dire need of being replaced anyway.

Last night heavy storms moved through, bringing small hail (not enough to damage the roof so the insurance would cover it, darn the luck), high winds, etc. and it was Too Much for the tree next door, or at least part of it:

The guy who lives next door came over last night after the storm had moved on, asking us if our house was alright.  Don was clearly a little perplexed, but assured him we were fine, thanks for asking.  That's when the neighbor said that a large branch had fallen from his tree onto the top of our house.

Hmmm....do you suppose his homeowner's insurance would pony up for a new roof? 

We're watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and Guy's at a place that serves hot dogs with chili, mustard, ketchup, MAYONNAISE, and I literally forget what all, plus a one-pound hot dog that's first lightly fried then topped with chili, jalapeno and habanero peppers, cole slaw, and - again - I forget what else.

Told Don that compared to that place, I'm running a health food joint. 

I was just at SuperTarget and it's astounding how, if one pays attention, there is stuff strewn throughout the grocery area that is out of place.  A small tub of ice cream nestled amongst the hairspray.  A box of Pim's cookies peeking out from behind a display of make-up bags.  I've seen canned vegetables in with the yogurt, peanut butter looking awkward between rolls of paper towels, and so on.

Out in the parking lot one of the basket wranglers had to pull a grocery cart off the grass median, even though the cart station was two cars down.  It's too much trouble to walk the width of two cars so as to put the cart where it belongs?  It's really that much faster to shove it up on the grass, over the curb?

Jeepers, but we're a lazy lot.

This is supposed to be similar to "Next Food Network Star"?

Apart from the basic premise, there's precious little similarity.  This show is uniformly depressing and annoying.  The literary quote that springs to mind when watching it is "They're all very unpleasant people."

For they are, whether contestants or judges.  The atmosphere is poisonous.  The blue-line beeping is almost constant at times, as the potty-mouth chefs scream at each other, and when a contestant is sent home it's by being ordered to "Pack your bags and leave."  Gee, how nice. 

I wish FoodTV were going to have their version of this show again, but here it's almost mid-April and I've not heard a peep about it.  My fear is that Amy Whozit, who won last July, has not been successful (certainly I've never watched her show, which airs at noon on Saturday...have any of y'all?) so the network is nervous about putting in a lot of time and money into a future network star that no-one watches, and decided to give it the go-by.

Have you read where the Olympic torch "closing" ceremony (by which presumably is meant it leaves these shores), which had been scheduled to be held in San Francisco, has been canceled and will be held in an undisclosed location, due to the vehement protests?

What chucklehead thought San Francisco would be a good place for that, anyway? 

With its large Chinese population?  Many of whom are doubtless not terribly fond of what used to be colloquially referred to as Red China?

Shades of having something headed to Cuba being on display in Miami. 

Don't you know the Olympic committee is developing ulcers over the upcoming Summer Games?  Let's see.  The Chinese government is rounding up those they consider to be dissidents (and it doesn't take much to qualify) and chucking 'em into jail for several months; there has been violence over there due to the situation with the Dalai Lama; the air quality is still appalling, to the extent at least a couple of high profile (in their respective sports, in any case) have said they're skipping these games; construction is not completed, etc. etc. etc.

And now the Olympic torch darn near triggers riots wherever it goes.

Gee, are we having fun yet?