AuntieB

If any of you know of any blind gentlemen of at least moderate means looking for the perfect young lady please forward the information to Auntie.

I might add that she plays Mah Jonng quite well, and bakes marvelously.
Today for tea she served deceptively plain scones that were simply perfect with her own homemade lemon curd.

marius

Auntie, your Martha sounds wonderful. And, perhaps she does not need a blind man as beauty is often entirely in the eye of the beholder. Example, spouse swears that WonderWoman was a hot babe. Um, sorry, do not agree. Spouse says, "If you'd been an adolescent boy when she was on TV you WOULD have thought her hot."No, don't think so.

Anyway, have you ever noticed how people you love look more and more beautiful as the years go by? : )

Dragon

I've heard that beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder. So perhaps you need to look in the bar hehehe. But it sounds like Martha deserves more than a drunk. Be careful Auntie B, if you find her too good a hubby she might not stay on as your housekeeper.

Baldur

Winter has returned to Primrose, RI. It actually snowed briefly this morning and has remained a bonechilling 38 degrees (F). How cold that seems compared to all the pleasant sunny 70-something weather we'd been having.

Shanley

Sorry to hear that, Baldur. The winter has been too long in Romania, too. But now we enjoy pleasant weather with up to 20 degrees (C).Can't wait to see some flowers though ...

Baldur

It's funny how weather effects us. Just a month ago, a day as warm as today would have seemed wonderful and Springlike.
Instead, after just a few very mildly warm days this seems extremely cold. Even indoors, in my heated home I still wore a big bulky sweater.

Hazer

I was saying that exact same thing just yesterday, Baldur. I've got the thermostat cranked up higher than on the coldest day of winter. It's ridiculous!

marius

So sorry about your weather, Baldur and Hazer. Perhaps Missouri borrowed your it because yesterday was THE most glorious day we've had since last fall! The sun was shining, the skies were blue, temps were in upper sixties, birds were singing and all was right in the world. Who knows, it felt so good that possibly there was one moment yesterday were all 6.5 billion people in the world felt wonderful? Anything is possible. And, of course, that leads nicely into another Missouri Moment.

Yesterday marius visited the wildlife refuge. It is very odd, truly odd, that marius went to the refuge at this time of year as the geese have already passed through en route to the tundra where they will breed and raise their children. So what was left to see? Ducks!

Frankly, marius wasn't that excited at first because marius does not do ducks, does not know her ducks ... or at least she thought she didn't. To my surprise, some brain cells or neurons that never seemed to work well before seemed to be activated in a most unusual way and marius was able to identify all the ducks, except ring-neck, without having to refer to her field guide. Still don't understand this: ducks were always my torture.

The first group of ducks, marius looked at them, scratched her head and thought, "Scaups." Then she thought, "That's ridiculous. I don't know my ducks. Why do I think they are scaups." So, checked the field guide and they were scaups!

Then the bufflehead was easy, but hooded mergansers? Could not believe I knew them without having to look in my field guide. Others include a few geese (Canada's and snows), mallards, teal, shovelers, wood ducks, common goldeneye, ruddy duck, pied-billed grebe, coots, trumpeter swans (just two), cormorants, eagles, kildeer, various black birds, seagulls, assorted sparrows and six muskrats. Favorite of the day was the muskrats because they are just so cute and all were sitting in the sun nibbling on whatever they nibble on. [Yes, muskrats are not birds but this birder counts all wildlife.]

Found out that the geese migration of 2009 (some may recall the video posted of 1.2 million geese) actually ended with a count of 1.6 million! Cannot wrap the mind around those numbers but to answer questions asked back then, the ranger said yes, geese in those numbers DO mess with water quality (think poop here). This spring there were only 250K geese. Apparently they like sun and it was too cloudy to stop over in Missouri.

After three hours at the refuge, marius drove to Dad's house. He lives halfway between the refuge and my home and he'd been alone all week, which he doesn't like. He is almost 88, still working and says he'll probably never retire. We went to dinner and then sat looking at the pond where a kingfisher was swooping into the water for his dinner. I stayed about four hours which is rather miraculous as Dad is an engineer and his mind is well, frankly think it's from another planet and as such, hard to connect sometimes. Did learn what 'machining' is and also things about buying steel. Did not know that some people have jobs where that is all they do all day long, buy steel. Yes, that is an entire job! Dad knows one guy who is a buyer of 'flat steel,' whatever that is. But, that is the man's entire job! I can see it now, you're at a party and someone says, "What do you do?" "Oh, I buy flat steel." Um .... ???

However, Dad is different in his old age and last night he talked about problems some of the people in the family are having. Positively shocked marius. Dad has never talked like this! He was not judgmental, but is confused at some of the events of past few years. Found out one nephew who is twenty-six has NEVER had a job. He is now living at home with his parents. Dad is shocked at this but marius is not. Nephew's dad, my brother, has had *serious* problems so no surprise that his children are having them too. Then Dad asked about my oldest sister who has not spoken with him for 18 years. I've been told Dad had said of that sister, "I hope I never see her again," so it is a good thing my heart is healthy because his inquiry about made me jump out of my skin. Then, I said something about Mom's mother having paranoid schizophrenia and Dad about jumped out of HIS skin. He had never heard this. I thought it knew, that it was general knowledge. Had to tell Dad about when Mom told me and poor Dad, he just sat there very confused ... but then, not sure he's ever been able to get past his denial that MOM had big problems too, not paranoid schizophrenia but certainly a milder form.

The moral of this story: sometimes our 'ducks are in a row' even when we don't know they are and ... your parents can surprise you no matter how old they are. : )

Yes, a strange world and am glad I'm in it and glad all you TDers are too!
Wishing all a glorius day full of love, good company, warmth and joy!

marius

PS And Dragon, LOL ... beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder.
Spouse and I are still laughing about wedding tackle! : )

lynnspotter

What a wonderful account of your day marius. It is truly a gift to remain surprised and awed by where daily life takes you! The part about dad asking about sis also reminds that there is always hope! What a blessing!

Robindcr8l

Yesteray was my last day on the rehab unit. Monday I start my new job. The staff I worked with yesterday felt bad that no one had planned a "going away" gala. Often when someone who's been there for quite awhile leaves, they have a pot-luck party. I hate the thought of that. Plus, I left the rehab unit 2 years ago for a new job at a new hospital that I ended up hating. Returned to rehab in 3 months. When I left back then, we had a big party at someone's house and I even got some gifts and stuff. Again, uncomfortable, but certainly someone doesn't deserve 2 parties for leaving a place, so I was thrilled that no one had suggested such a thing til it was too late. Anyway, yesterday I was the charge nurse, so spent some of my day in the charge office. At one point I returned to the office to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers. There was a sticky note on it saying something about the rehab staff loving me and missing me. That was the first clue that perhaps these flowers were recycled. I mean, a sticky note?? Then upon closer observation, the roses were drooping and wilted, and a few of the mums were down to only 5 or 6 petals. The lilys and greenery were still lovely, though. That bouquet just cracked me up. We had discharged 11 patients yesterday, and I can only assume that one of them did not want to take her lovely bouquet home in the car. So apparently it was left at the nurse's station for all to enjoy, at which point one of the nurses affixed the sticky note and put it in the office. LMAO! That tickled me more than she'll ever know. Really spoke to the essence of my personality, and I appreciated that!

Marius, thoroughly enjoyed your account of your day. Lots of lovely things for you to enjoy there! I really appreciated the part about your dad being an engineer and how differently his mind works. Reminded me of someone I used to date..."the one that got away" so to speak. Michael was the twin brother of my good friend Melissa. Michael and I dated for awhile, but just casually, and sort of drifted apart. He ultimately married and had kids, and I used to regret that I hadn't taken our relationship more seriously when we dated, because he was really funny, and now quite successful and he was married to someone who didn't seem to appreciate his humor, which bothered me. But then Michael and Melissa's brother got married in chicago, and we all met there to go to the wedding. Michael stayed in a hotel probably about a mile from the hotel Melissa and I and her husband were at. We all planned to meet halfway for dinner. So Michael calls Melissa's room and I answered. Michael, the engineer, wants to finalize our dinner arrangements. Melissa, coincidentally, is married to another Mike who happens to be an engineer. So I tell Michael where we are meeting. He wants to know precisely the distance. I ask Mike, who says it is approximately .6 miles. Somehow, I am now in the middle of a conversation about if we leave at 6pm and walk at a pace of 4 miles a minute, we can expect it to take x number of minutes to arrive at our destiny, so Michael and his wife should plan to leave at 5:58 because they are x number of miles away and walk at a slightly faster pace because their legs are x number of inches longer than ours.

I'm NOT making this up. That was the moment I KNEW that Michael and I were NEVER meant to be. That yes, he's a funny guy, and a nice guy, and a successful guy, but no WAY could I live with him!

Gotta love those engineers!

Dragon

Robin, I love that you were so tickled by the recycled flowers. So many people would be so cheesed off by that, it's good that you can take them as they were intended-a nice gesture left a little late.

I also know what you mean about engineers, a great many of my friends are either engineers or computer scientists. At some point in the evening the conversation always turns to computers (which are almost a complete mystery to me). I can feel the MEGO set in (My Eyes Glaze Over) as soon as the topic starts and eventually someone will take pity on me and turn back to more comprehensible topics. One of the couples was so bad at deciding where to go for dinner that they actually wrote a program to randomly choose a restaraunt for them, this wouldn't be quite so geeky if they hadn't linked it to a super computer in Texas to run the program.

Baldur

Baldur think he would get a kick out of used flowers too, especially if it were an obviously funereal arrangement of gladioli and spider mums in one of those dreadful papier mache' containers that florists are prone to use up here.

Baldur

Despite the frigid weather that never topped 40 degrees F today Baldur did serious yard work today. I attached the brambles and poison ivy on a rocky slope on the Southern side of Boughbreak. This permitted me to finally rake out the last neglected bed of bleeding hearts that were smothered in tangles of overgrowth.
I also transplanted some more daylilies and a few clumps of violets across the road.

Then it was time for some serious comfort food.
Baldur made a grilled cheese sandwich with squeezed dry sauerkraut and hot red pepper flakes inside. It was heaven.

Baldur

-today
Once in a sentence is enough.

marius

What kind of cheese did Baldur use with his sauerkraut?

Robin and Dragon, LOL on the engineer/geek stories! [LOVE "MEGO" cause been there a LOT!]

Sweet dreams to all and to all a good night!

Baldur

Baldur used white American cheese as that was what was in the refrigerator. Swiss would have been great.
Cheddar even more so

Baldur

If I need to shop for groceries and such Baldur would be required to drive his rusty old pickup truck out of Primrose. The nearest area that contains markets, banks, petrol stations and such is where the town of North Smithfield borders on the sprawling metropolis of Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
One of the places that one needs to frequent when there is Ocean State Job Lot

http://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/home/default.aspx

Baldur

This store is an amazing mishmash of wonderful items, all wonderfully cheaper than anywhere else.
Of course one never knows what to expect, and indeed if you find something exceptional it is best to buy lots of it, as it may never turn up again.

Baldur

A couple weeks ago Baldur found jars of Sauerkraut from Germany. The brand name is 'Kuhne' (with diacritical marks galore) and it is truly amazing.
It is far less salty than the tinned American variety. It is also a goodly amount (28.5 oz) for a scant $2 USD.
After purchasing a jar and sampling it, Baldur raced back and purchased 5 more jars.
Robert avoids Sauerkraut at all costs and shakes his head when it graces my grilled cheese sandwiches, omelets or just gets piled next to boiled potatoes.