Easter 2019, Grandchildren, Paige On Stage

Update April 21 to April 27

-- Easter Bunny Arrived in Jefferson

Cousin Leela Reads to Lucy

Holidays in our household are hit and miss. Patti works on weekends and often on holidays, which make holiday visits a challenge. This Easter she was off throughout the holiday so we became the host for overnight visits and the great Easter Egg hunt (Jefferson style) for the grandchildren.

Mary and Ira came up from Connecticut to spend the weekend. Johnny drove down from Maine too. Patti's sister, Mary, had arrived with all the fixings for Easter baskets and an egg hunt. She stuffed the baskets and I made small signs for each basket to make sure the right basket went to the right customer. Mary hid the eggs in the downstairs playroom. It was decided to let the egg hunt precede dinner so we wouldn't have too many preemptive "may I be excused from the table" requests. The kids ram amuck picking up eggs and finding their individual baskets and remarkably everyone seemed pleased with their gatherings.

Olive's New Friend

The guest list included Corinne and her two daughters, Lucy and Olive; Kari and David and their two children, Leela and Louis; Patti's siblings, David, Johnny, Mary, and Ira; plus in the afternoon Marna and Steve came with Paige and Lily. I measure the type of visit by the number of dishwasher loads: in this case, three.

Olive got a chance to really enjoy the rotating playground seat that we have had on hand for a while. We tried her in the seat some time ago and she was too small. She slumped over to the side and was never very comfortable. She's over 15 pounds now and seems to be adapting to the sear better now. It has a lot of things she can pull, poke, spin, and pound with her fist. She delights at the buttons that fire off tunes and she doesn't mind when big sister Lucy joins in and helps punch various buttons to create a racket. 

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-- Paige On Stage - As You Might Expect

Paige - Stage Center

The Flapper

It seems that we get an invitation to see Paige or Lily at various performances on a regular basis. With Lily in Amherst, it's mostly Paige that has local events we can attend. This week she was part of a special show at Worcester State University that featured the music of Stephen Sondheim. He's the musical genius behind movies and shows such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sunday in the Park, and Sweeney Todd. 

The show was titled, Putting It Together, which is a musical revue set in a Manhattan penthouse at a swanky cocktail party. It premiered in England in 1992 and had its Broadway run in 1999. The show takes place at an all-night, black-tie party where an older couple and a younger couple deal with their relationships. When I started watching the show I thought they were in a nightclub, but it turns out rich people in Manhattan have entertainment space that rivals a nightclub. Who knew?

Anyway, Paige was hilarious as she sat at a side table pretending to drink Martinis. She was constantly tipping the glass as if she was draining the last drop. It reminded me of some of her other on-stage performances where she was a bit tipsy, such as her leading role in Guys and Dolls. It was a fun show and I can't wait for her next performance.

-- Retirement Planning

Patti and I met with our Attorney this week to get his view on our retirement plan. He felt that things were well in order and with a few minor suggestions, which we agreed with, we will continue with our plan. He agreed that there was no need for a financial planner given that our preparations have been adequate up to now. Patti may decide to work a bit longer, but not much, and mostly because she enjoys it. We don't need the income at this point. My only job right now is to be sure and plan a week's vacation every month. It occupies my time to plan it, then enjoy it, and then write about it afterward. I'm okay with that.

Our current vacation plans include Vermont and Lake George New York in June, Old Orchard Beach in July, Lake Winnipesaukee Region in September, Cape Cod in October, and something special around Patti's birthday in November. I will have to focus on what we should do in August, maybe the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia or perhaps Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Waters in Pennsylvania? We'll see.

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READING UPDATE: If you understand mythology you will understand why our planet is in the mess it's in today. As human beings, we are victims of mythology and have been since early man (humans) first slunk around looking for grubs and berries to eat. In his book, The Flight of the Wild Gander, Author Joseph Campbell attempts to seek the source of all myths and to help us understand the peril humans are in because we don't understand our own inadequacies. Whether it's the Brothers Grimm or false religious prophets, we must stand fast against the damage of myth makers. It's the story-tellers (see my book, The World's Seven Biggest Liars, for more on this - Available at Barnes and Noble website.) In the meantime, you can borrow this book from me to get a grip on why myths need to be broken.

Anniversary Dinner, Grandchildren Visit, Writing, Reading, Dining Out

Update March 31 to April 13


-- Every Five Years in Vegas - Maybe Not

Patti at Sonoma

When Patti and I got married, we went to Las Vegas. On our fifth and tenth wedding anniversary, we flew to Las Vegas to celebrate. This was our fifteenth year, and we decided not to go to Vegas. That doesn't mean we didn't celebrate, we just were less flamboyant about it this year. 

Sea Scallops 

We did elect to go to one of our favorite flamboyant restaurants, the Sonoma at the Beechwood Hotel in Worcester. We have been a fan of the Sonoma Restaurant for many years and when the Chef moved to Worcester things only got better. It's closer to us, you can find them open for breakfast and lunch - seven days a week. That's just not likely to happen with haute cuisine establishments. But, it's a hotel, and they have guests with needs. So, we are the incidental beneficiary of the arrangement.

Patti went with the Filet Mignon, and I had the special Sea Scallops. Both were delicious, and Patti even had leftovers, which I got to enjoy the next day. In effect, I got a surf and turf out of it. We split a desert, as usual, as we couldn't resist. Maybe we will do Las Vegas five years from now?

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Olive Makes a Break for it.

-- Grandchildren Keep Tuesday Jumping

Olive has enjoyed playing in her play yard for many months. It has four flexible overhead arms that are perfect for hanging various toys that she can grab. When she's particularly aggressive, she can make the arms swing and sway. Today she rolled enough to put her legs into a flexed position, and when she exploded her energy, the arms nearly caved in. The opposite corner of the floor mat curled up, and the whole play yard nearly toppled over. 

She was clearly busting out of the place, and nothing was stopping her. She's able to roll over, and now that makes her twice as curious as she can propel herself toward enticing new objects which she can explore and decimate. I sense that we have practically outgrown the play yard and we need a better cage.

The young Dick Wright

-- Continuing to Catalog Dad's Columns

When Dad was writing his twice-weekly columns for the Worcester Gazette, he became fully entwined in the local political picture. His commentaries extended to how the schools were run, how the city planners ran trash pickup or street cleaning, to municipal budgeting and the tendency of the incumbent City Manager, Francis McGrath, to bedazzle the part-time city councilors.

The sixteen loose-leaf binders with copies of his articles have been a very time-consuming task to review and edit. I'm still working on how to preserve and present them for the family and for the general readership. 

-- Lucy is a Gamer - Board and Electronic

Lucy with Candyland

Lucy likes to play a variety of electronic games on her tablet. The games are instructional in math and language as well as fun. She also likes traditional board games. Even though she is five, she still wants to play Candyland. She likes to win, mostly. But, if she loses, I can generally get her to try again.

She knows the object is to win, to get there first. But, she has a hard time understanding why she doesn't get a favorable card draw each time. Her concept of chance is very narrow. There is no chance aspect for her. She just wants to win. And for you to lose.

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READING UPDATE: I have just finished reading, My Father Marconi by Degna Marconi. His daughter provides a personalized view of the life and times of the inventor and scientist that made the first trans-ocean radio broadcast in 1901. Guglielmo Marconi is today remembered as the father of wireless communications. Little would he have suspected just how prolific wireless would be in today's age? His early fascination with electricity, another scientific Adventureland of the day, occupied a lot of his youthful time making experiments and daydreaming about what he could accomplish. And, as usual, we discover that governments, who refuse patents, and challengers, make the difficult road he was on even more so. Eventually, he became the toast of two continents as he proved that worldwide communications were possible.