Had my nephew, Justin's, son Cole over for a little while last week.  He's such a sweetheart!

On Thursday evening I went to the Den @ Christ Chapel for an improv group called "Curtis Needs a Ride".  One of the members is the son of a friend of mine, and they're making a television pilot by taping their shows from various locations over the next several days, culminating at the wedding of said member next Friday night in Missouri.  The mind boggles - at least mine does - at the thought of an improv group containing the groom being filmed at the occasion of his marriage.  Surely the wedding itself will be off-limits, and it'll be at the rehearsal dinner where any film-worthy activity will take place?  Surely?  I need to ask Kathy (the mother of the groom) about that. 

I wish I'd taken photos (with my cell phone's camera) of the most hilarious segment of their performance, which was the puppet bit, wherein a couple of audience members went up and posed Austin (the one with the beard, and is the groom of whom I spoke) and Grayson (dark haired guy in the bottom photo), so the latter two had to perform so as to make sense of the poses.  I laughed so hard I was in pain, literally! 

It's incredibly difficult to believe, but it's Concert in the Garden time once more.  The series of concerts held by the Fort Worth Symphony in the Botanic Gardens began last night, and run through July 5.  Where on earth does the time go?  To us, once the CitG closes, it feels as if summer's half gone, as it'll be back to school time.  Next thing one knows school will have begun (keep in mind Dmitry's not out until next Friday), the holidays will be upon us, and it'll be 2009 before we know what happened.  They're nothing special, but here are the traditional fireworks photos, taken from my front porch:

 

This morning I received this extraordinary picture from Alex, taken by someone on a helicopter; it's the Blue Ridge with Mount Fuji.  Marvelously balanced photo!  It ought to be the Official Photo of the Blue Ridge, at least as long as it's based in Japan:

Isn't that gorgeous?  I love it.  

The weekend's shaping up to be a bit busier than is usual, as tonight I'll be helping with a wedding reception at the church, then tomorrow afternoon is Dmitry's friend, Elveera's, high school graduation party, followed by the graduation ceremony tomorrow evening at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

It's just barely possible I might take a photo or two. 

It's being decommissioned, you see.  The sailors on board are wearing their whites and standing so as to spell out the word "Sayonara:

That must be a bittersweet occasion, don't you know?

Tonight after I collected him at Carolyn's, within literally (I checked the clock) three minutes of pulling away from her house, he had the earbuds to his iPod Shuffle in his ears, listening to the songs Carolyn's sister, Kim, had downloaded for him, while texting Carolyn herself on his cell phone.

Gee, but it's nice to have company in the car when one's driving. 

When I pointed out that he'd just seen her for eight solid hours, for crying out loud, he earnestly protested that he'd hardly had any chance to talk with her, what with the pool party, and going out for hamburgers and to Blockbuster, and watching a movie. 

Don, Charles, Dmitry and I headed for Keller and the service, meeting up with Brianna there, as Bridgette is running a fever due to a blossoming ear infection and is in pain due to cutting not one but two molars, poor baby, so Jessica had to stay home with her.

If her Gran may say so, Bethany looked quite lovely.  

That was actually taken afterwards, along with this one of Matt's family (lacking a few members):

Another little girl made her first communion as well; here the two girls are with the priest:

Here's a photo of Dmitry and Brianna that I'm including just because I like it and it's my blog:

As soon as the photo ops were finished Don, Dmitry and I drove to Niki's Italian Bistro to collect the lasagna, salad and rolls, then took them to Kirstin's house.  That was some seriously tasty lasagna, BTW.  ;^)

After everyone ate it was time for Bethany to open her gifts; checks are always a hit:

Trouble is, when it comes to money even little ones quickly learn the lesson of easy come....easy go:

What do you wanna bet it's destined for some savings account somewhere? 

Bethany and Brianna peering into a gift bag:

Our gift was a new bible; this sets a trend for such occasions as I'd given Bethany the one I received at four months old when she was baptized.

The gift opening was followed by noshing on this gorgeous cake:

It was a hummingbird cake, which is now close to qualifying as my favorite cake.  Yum, yum, yum! 

Anyway, it was a wonderful occasion and party.  Wish y'all could have been there (Kirstin bought way too much lasagna!). 

This afternoon I went to SuperTarget (as is my custom), and was appalled to find that though no construction activity was going on, the honkin' big crane being used to build the new Museum Place mixed-use complex was hanging - not over the construction area where no one was - but over Seventh Street, a fairly busy street.  Cranes can suddenly fall, as we've seen both here in the Metroplex and up in NYC, where some poor woman died when a crane collapsed onto her apartment.

Why on earth would a crane operator go off for the Memorial Day weekend leaving the horizontal arm hovering over a well-traveled street?  

How terribly indolent of me. 

To be fair, not a whole awful lot has happened in the interim, though on Tuesday night there was a birthday dinner for Don courtesy of Kirstin's husband, Matt, who works for the company that owns TGIFriday's.  Unfortunately where we were placed had the setting sun streaming in, so it wasn't a suitable venue for photos, particularly those taken by my cell phone's camera.

Charles had come in for an interview with Camp Carter, hoping to be a counselor, only to discover counselors don't make much money. 

Uncle Charles may always be counted on to play an invigorating game of chase. 

Silly Uncle Charles! 

If you find yourself at TGIFriday's, and like a dish with a bit of bite to it, I highly recommend the Dragonfire Chicken.  It was most delish.  You know what was also good?  The fried green beans with a wasabi sauce on the side!  Fried green beans?  What a weird idea, but very tasty.  Even Bryson was chowing down on them. 

I was at Target this afternoon and to what did my wondering eyes appear - when I glanced down at the appropriate shelf as is my custom - but a Wii!  

Been trying to get hold of one of those for the basic price since last fall.  When I was getting Don his birthday gift at Circuit City on Thursday (a mobile printer....neat, huh?) I asked about them, and was regretfully told they show up intermittently and disappear almost at once.  Same day, for sure.  Supply isn't forecast to be regular until sometime next year, the man said. 

Had looked last week at Target and they weren't there (as usual), but voila! here they were today!  The salesclerk working in the electronics area said they'd just arrived to be put out this morning and he'd already sold through the first batch he had out, and this was the second batch.  He said they'd be gone by tonight.

But I GOT ONE!  

I love the bowling best so far, though the tennis is excellent exercise.  The golf is as frustrating here as it is in real life.  Can't connect with the dumb little ball for nuthin'.  Don's shooting stuff as I type.

But lemme tell you, the LORD knew what He was doing.  Have you read about the trash problem in Naples, where the base is located?

Naples rubbish crisis sparks health fears.

Collectors stopped picking up Naples' trash in December because dumps are full.

Tons of garbage is blocking many sidewalks and streets in the center of
Naples and its suburbs, forcing residents to sometimes wade through
knee-high trash. Angry residents have taken to burning rubbish,
knocking over refuse bins and dumping bags of refuse in the countryside.

Hoteliers are complaining that tourists are canceling reservations or
checking out early after smelling the stench as the weather warms.

Mercy Maud!  Can you imagine? 

Oh, my!  What a menu.  It was hard making a decision on what to eat, though it was helped along by Jessica's warning that come July 1, my favorite Caribbean Salad is going away.    Obviously, that's what I ordered.  Brianna, who sat across from me, ordered macaroni and cheese ("with extra cheese!"), french fries, and fried cheese.  

A budding gourmet, not a doubt about it. 

She and Uncle Jonathan passed the time waiting for the food to arrive by coloring:

Here's the honorée, with his youngest son:

And our gracious hostess with darling Bridgette:

It was delightful when Jason's mother, aunt, eldest daughter, Kirsten, and cousin, Katie, unexpectedly showed up, and were invited to join our party.  ;^)

It was a lovely lunch, and it's just a pity that Kirstin and her family couldn't be with us, or Charles (not to mention Alex and Beth and their girls, of course!), but we're going to have dinner with them later in the week. 

Alex sent me this link to a story in a Thai newspaper about the Blue Ridge's visit there.  There's a photo of him being silly with his tuba (so what else is new, right?), and I'm not sure that isn't him in the left photo of them cleaning the beach.  The guy squatting resembles him, I thought.