They Like Me!

 


Last night was my retirement party and what a great evening it was.  In typical Wisconsin fashion, it wasn't at a fancy restaurant (but then I'm not a "fancy" kind of girl), it was at a pub that serves excellent family-style food, the most excellent being the broasted (lightly breaded and pressure-fried) pork chops.  (oh mama, those are good eats.)  We also had mashed potatoes, corn, that weird pasty sage-y stuffing I refuse to eat but Durwood loves, gravy, coleslaw which I love as much as he loves that stuffing, broasted chicken, roasted chicken, and plates of bars and cheesecake squares.  Also dinner rolls.  Suffice to say that no one left hungry.  Since I worked at the dive shop for nearly 25 years they gifted me with a gorgeous silver and red dive watch (I'm wearing it right now) and a lovely card with a little $$ in it.  Everyone else brought cards and every one had either a gift card for fabric or yarn or a little $$ tucked into it and one of the cards was attached to a Moleskine notebook.  (score! I love those)  If I'd have known how much fun and profit there was in retiring I'd have retired years ago--or more than once.  Nah, not really.  It was a fun evening telling dive tales and laughing with friends.  I really appreciated it and it felt great knowing that they appreciated me.




As we drove out of the parking lot the sky to the west was ablaze with the sunset and when we turned east toward the highway on-ramp there was the Full Thunder Moon rising in all its glory.  I grabbed my cellphone out of my purse and juggled it onto the top of the steering wheel so that when we crossed the tallest bridge in town I had a good shot of the western sky.  Then once we were home I waited until the moon rose into a gap in the trees along the street to capture it.  







This morning I saw that there's the first butternut squash blossom out there a-blooming away.  Hooray!  We love squash.  Now I just have to keep my eye on the vines so they stay on the fence and don't go trying to take over the tomato plants.

Last night I finished the Easter Egg anklet.  Somehow it ended up smaller and tighter than the previous one.  I think it might fit and work in a shoe better.  I'm hoping a good wash and dry will help the Calypso anklet not be so loose.  I do like the way they look though, don't you?


July 9--Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Great Odalisque.  She almost got her clothes on before the door burst open.  Cyril brought energy into the quiet room with him.  "I know you're not dressed yet," he said, "but I can't wait."  He flung an evening cape of apricot velvet lined with white satin on the chaise.  "Here, sit right here like this."  He perched on his left hip with his elbow on the back of the reclining chair.  "But the dress..." Dianne said, her hands caught in the froth of lace.  "Leave it," he said, guiding her to sit where he wanted her.  He wrapped a fringed scarf around her head arranging it so that the scarf's fringe lay over her shoulder.  "Now look here and don't move.  I don't want to lose the light."  She was cramped and cold, and embarrassed to be nude but he wasn't really looking at her as a person, only as lines and shadows.  As the hours passed that thought grew less comforting and more annoying.  Why wasn't he looking at her?  Was there something wrong with him?  Was there something wrong with her?

P.S.  I looked up "odalisque," it's a Turkish word for concubine.  

My big plan for the afternoon is to poke some bamboo stakes into the bales to tie up the tomatoes that are trying to grow out of their cages.  Good thing there's a hill behind them so that my short self will be able to reach up there.  Now I know why one of the books I read about straw bale gardening recommended getting determinate tomatoes--they don't grow all over the landscape like the indeterminate ones do.  I just bought what we like and I'll deal with the consequences.  I see by my new watch that it's past lunchtime.  Gotta go. (Happy Happy, Aunt B!)
--Barbara