SALSA

What do you do when you wake up at 5 a.m.?  You make salsa, of course!  It really is yummy and I'll bring some for lunch.  I winged it, so I will try to re-create the ingredients.

1 nectarine

1/3 seeded jalapeno pepper (go slowly, tasting)

1/2 large sweet red pepper

lemon juice, lime juice from a fresh lime

1/3 red onion

4 or 5 strawberries

Chop the nectarine, douse with lemon juice to prevent browning. Chop everything else, add lime juice and stir. Refrigerate. Enjoy.

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So I went to the Mass. State House on Friday.

This is the formal reception room for the President of the Senate, Senator Stan Rosenberg who lives in Amherst.

And this is the rehearsal for the Change of Command Ceremony (Capt. Zhu is on the right).

The ceremony was held in the Army Nurses' Room of the State House

Here is a view looking down at the visitors' chairs (left) before the ceremony.

I was humbled to be asked to be Yaoyao's "American Mother" at her Change of Command ceremony in Boston. (Her mother is still in China, taking care of grandparents.) I seem to have left the program in the car, but Capt. Yaoyao Zhu is now the Commander of the Boston Medical Recruiting station for the Army.  Capt. Foldereauer (I hope I got the spelling correct) brought the site up from the bottom to number 4 in recruiting numbers! This recruiting area extends from Maine to W. Virginia and there are many Soldiers involved. Their goal is to get the best medical personnel for the Army

Yaoyao and I have corresponded for a number of years, having "met" online through a mutual friend. Since she is the age of my oldest daughter, Deb, at one point I asked if she minded if I gave her a little advice.  We have been friends ever since.

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On Saturday, Cyndi and I went to the Clark Museum in Williamstown.  No, no pictures. If you can believe it, I did not have either my camera or my cell phone with me.

It was a lovely drive on a hot day -- thank goodness for the car's air conditioning! The GPS took us on a particularly scenic route getting there.  When we left, we went MY way which was the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) all the way. I think Cyndi enjoyed her first encounter with the hairpin turn on the Trail.

When we approached the Museum, we were amazed to see parked cars lining the street. As we were leaving, I asked if they knew how many people had visited.  As of 2 p.m., 1500 visitors has entered. The Museum remained open until 5 p.m.

Most people were there to see the Van Gogh exhibit. Also, Whistler's Mother.  She was in a totally different building and we ran out of time to get there, so we will have to go another time.

Van Gogh is not my favorite (Monet is), but I learned a lot because I rented the audio description ipad.  I like those because they give you a lot more information than what is on the descriptive label.

I did especially enjoy the room where one wall is Monet (with a couple of Pisarros thrown in), and the opposite wall is Renoir.  What a contrast in colors! Renoir of the dark, lush colors and Monet with his delicate blurry pastels.

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Thursday night, I was delighted to have dinner with Debbie and her friend, Sarah.  We went to a Japanese barbecue restaurant which was yummy!  We gobbled up many plates of food -- which we cooked ourselves on a gas brazier.

Since we were in a partying mood, we got dessert too. 

Sarah said I probably should have taken the picture BEFORE we ate most of it ... the green tea cake is on the left and the green tea ice cream is on the right.  The cake was amazingly light and many thin layers. We also had what they called a banana fritter, but it was much better than a fritter.  It was a thin piece of fried dough with a banana and banana cream inside.  Yummy!

After dinner, I went to my airbnb in the Galleria Apartments at Longwood.  It was lovely -- clean and quiet.  My host is an accomplished cardiologist from Belize who provided erudite conversation.

After Yaoyao's ceremony on Friday, Deb took me to lunch and showed me her office which was close by.  I had a very exciting end to my vacation!

And now it's 7 a.m. when I usually get up -- and time to go to work.  Ciao!