This morning I was clearing out a cabinet (now most of the stuff's just sort of piled around, which probably isn't really an improvement) and discovered three photo albums from awhile back.  I scanned in some of the pix (which include Charles as a baby, and our trip to Orlando in '90) and uploaded them to Flickr.  

Tonight I'm going to go somewhere I've never been, i.e. Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, with a singles' group to which I belong.  I've no intention of betting, mind, but look forward to watching the races.  Been eons since I've been to a horse race.  Back in Ruidoso decades ago, IIRC.

....I'm thinking I'm going to enjoy this year's competition, finding several of the competitors engaging, and their recipes intriguing.  It was a pity about Dzintra (a name that makes "Dmitry" seem positively commonplace in comparison) the woman who had to leave a task due to a scratched cornea, spending the night in the ER and still being unable to cook for 24 hours once released.  Granted, her absence was detrimental to her team and placed extra work on them, but I was honestly shocked at the judgmental, critical attitude of Brianna (a name that should grace nicer females, such as my granddaughter) Jenkins, who carried on about how she would never leave only because she had something in her eye, etc. etc.

 

ISTM when the paramedics come and tell a person to get their eye to the ER, a prudent, smart person takes that advice to heart.  It is, after all, one's eye.  True, we've got two (as a general rule) but that doesn't mean we should not take care of one when it's clearly damaged.

 

Not in Brianna's loudly and oft-stated opinion, however.  Why, she would never do such a thing as leave as did Dzintra, no matter what.  She made quite clear she thought her fellow competitor was a wimp.

 

Which pretty much shows that not only is she stupid, but mean.  Mean and stupid isn't a winning combination, so I'm now officially anxious to see her self-satisfied, arrogant self kicked off the show.

 

Sad to say, I'm not a lot fonder of Dzintra, considering the critical attitude she had the nerve to take about the dessert produced in her place.  Uh, sugar, your team members had their own dishes to prepare plus trying to create what you had planned and had purchased ingredients for, without being totally clear on it.  That they managed to serve up something reasonably tasty is a testament to their talent and ability, IMO.  Not that Dzintra praised them for it.

 

Maybe the next two weeks will rid the show of two such unpleasant women.  

 

Much less that the cupcake world is highly competitive?  

Still, I'll probably watch "Cupcake Wars" anyway.  

Not only is it my birthday month (DARK chocolate, please), but it's National Candy Month.  

It's also when The Next Food Network Star series begins.  Actually, I'm watching it right now.  Really enjoying it!  

I was just at the liquor store (where'd the silly term "package" store come from, anyway?) buying a bottle of vodka.  Upon leaving the store, a man clearly not of means approached me, saying he's an alcoholic and just needs fifty cents to buy a bottle of vodka.  After gaping at him for a second in open-mouthed astonishment, I rather forthrightly told him no, I wasn't going to give an alcoholic any money to buy alcohol.  

Points for honesty, yes....money, no.

Afterward it occurred to me what I ought to have done was offer to call the non-emergency police number so they could give him a ride to the Union Gospel Mission or Presbyterian Night Shelter, in hopes he'd hear the gospel plus receive counseling for his acknowledged addiction.  Unfortunately I'm not good at thinking on my feet, so this better option didn't cross my mind until later.  

The past couple of days....and today especially....we've been working to switch rooms and clean closets (explaining why the dining room is full of stuff again), so that I'm back in the master bedroom, and Zhenya is in the middle bedroom.

Dmitry's been enthusiastically rearranging his furniture, so moved his TV and plugged it into a different plug a few minutes ago.

Whereupon, according to both him and his friend, Taylor, there was a flash and the power went out to that room. I threw on a robe and slippers to go see if I could find a blown fuse, which I did, but it didn't make a difference.

Guess I need to call Kenny tomorrow, as presumably the plug shorted out.

Nothing's easy, is it?

IOW, my apologies for the extended silence, yet again.

On Sunday was my grandson, Benjamin's, first communion at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, and I regret to acknowledge I didn't get a single solitary usable photo from the service, barring this one of his father, Matt, reading to the congregation:

  

After Mom, Dmitry and I scooted up to Roanoke to fetch fried chicken (and creamed corn and mashed potatoes and gravy and salad and biscuits) from Babe's, we headed back to Kirstin's house to open it and set up.  After a few minutes others began to arrive (we'd left right after Benjamin took communion), and the feast was on.  Here's the Boy of Honor:

What a handsome guy. 

As you can see, his paternal grandmother, Velma,  was also there (as was his paternal grandfather, but I didn't take a photo of Ben Ed), along with his Gigi, my mother:

And here is my precious poppet, Brielle, with her equally precious Mama, Kirstin:

Okay, that was Sunday.  Monday night was a busy night, with a regrettable conflict!  7 p.m. that evening was the starting time for both Brianna's Casa Manana performance, winding up her CPAC class, as well as Meredith and Margaret's homeschool end-of-year event.  There wasn't any way I could make it to the latter, sad to say, though my heart was there, and I certainly hope to see photos and video just any minute now. 

Brianna was one of the children wired for a mike, so she could generally be heard:

I've tried to embed the Motionbox videos of her performance, but it's simply not working.  Very frustrating. 

I'll try again in it's own post.  Anyway, here is a picture of me with my three eldest granddaughters, Kirsten, Bethany, and Brianna:

And a charming one, if I do say so myself, of Jessica and Bethany:

Brianna was really good, and we were pleased Mom was able to be there for her primary performances, then was able to leave and walk into the M's event right as Meredith was introduced! 

May is a crazy busy month, what with end-of-year events, and closing luncheons, and birthdays.

Speaking of which, today is my sister, Jeanne's, birthday!  Happy birthday to Jeanne! 

.....God willing, naturally....Mom and I will be on the Maasdam in Boston, preparing to set sail for points north and east!

Yee, as they say, HAW!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Canada! Iceland! Greenland! England! Ireland! Norway! Holland!

Wow, wow.

It's my fervent hope there's wireless available on the ship so I can blog as we go. Which brings up a story Mom just called to tell me that she'd read: a representative back in the Revolutionary times, Hamilton Otis, attended the funeral of George Washington, and knowing that his wife back in Boston was agog to hear about it, he wrote a letter describing it as it happened, then sent it to her by courier.

By jingo, he was live blogging before live blogging was cool, as best he could.

Last night I went to the Curtis Needs a Ride improvisational comedy performance at Christ Chapel's "den", and there's a new member of the cast as Steve Rupp is moving to Chicago. Ricky - that's his name - was sent out of the room and the audience provided an activity, location and person for him to have to guess: witchcraft, Saskatchewan, and Mr. Bean. He got the first without a whole lot of trouble, but the last two were hard. Flu, Grayson and Austin managed to give him sufficient hints, though. Improv cracks me up. Don never cared much for it, but I love it.

It's been raining all afternoon, but I'm thinking it's going to stop soon, as the sky is lightening. This would be good as in an hour I leave to volunteer at a wedding. Very messy weather for a wedding, it's been!

It doesn't seem like that many years since I posted photos of Charles going to his senior prom, and now here's Dmitry escorting Carolyn to the Southwest High School prom. 

Alex had a tuxedo that fit Dmitry nicely - and the shoes, too! - and he took everything to Carolyn's to change.  I showed up a bit after 6:30, to take pictures and drive them to the Hilton downtown.  We made a quick detour to let Mom get to see them, too.  ;^)

Aren't they a beautiful couple?  And I love this picture of Mom adjusting Dmitry's tie a bit:

Being in a t-shirt and jeans, I wasn't much of a match to them, but still...how often does one's youngest child head off to the prom?

The biggest smile on Dmitry's face came when he had his picture taken with his Grandma.  For his mother he looks pleasant....for his grandmother he beams:

He his Grandma. 

As I said, it was my lot to take them downtown to the Hilton, which wouldn't normally have been a problem except this is the weekend of the Main Street Arts Festival (Cherrie and Forrest, I was Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, and the festival does go all the way to where the hotel is!), plus there was something going on at the convention center (the hotel is across the street from it), and there was something going on at the Bass Hall.  All told, it made traffic a misery, what with so many streets closed off, and stretch limos all over the place, and crowds of people.

After the prom (though they aren't planning to stay the whole time) Carolyn's parents will collect them, then they'll go back to her house, change, head to IHOP for a bite, then soak in her hot tub.