Heat Wave and Aftermath

Who knew that two days in a row of 90 F. heat was a heatwave? Or maybe it's only a heat wave when it's May before Memorial Day. It was beastly at work -- 86 + in my office. Ugh.

One of my friends was bragging that his tomatoes are three feet tall. HA! My weeds are taller than that. (He lives in Maryland and if he asks me one more time if all of the snow has melted, I'm going to mail him a snowball. With yellow snow.

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Monday, May 22

It's back to rainy and 50s. That's o.k. I have been remiss, so here are "old" pictures I was saving for you.

The top three pictures are from a couple of weeks ago when it was spring (and not a heat wave).

  

This year, I only have single white lilacs. In the past, I have also had double lavender lilacs -- but they appear to have left ...

Below is the panda that Emily brought me all the way from California (from Mom). He holds my cell phone. Do you see Roxanne's cut work on my window? It's truly amazing. She does it all free hand (design and cutting).

And above is the Mother's Day bouquet that Emily sent me. This picture was taken yesterday and it's still blooming like crazy. It's very cheerful.
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So yesterday was a pilgrimage to Costco to buy BIG FOOD. I already had veggies, luckily, but I ended up cooking:

beef and mushrooms in the crockpot
curry roasted cauliflower
steamed cauliflower
roasted brussels sprouts with bacon fat
bacon (baked -- pre-cooked)
quiche with pancetta on the bottom (crustless)
ribs with cajun seasoning.

I did not make the mushroom soup, but maybe I'll do that on Wednesday. The fridge is a bit over stocked ...

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Cyndy and I went to see A Quiet Passion with Keith Carradine and Cynthia Nixon. Some of it was filmed in Amherst at the Emily Dickinson House. We were not impressed. Cyndi told me all about   the historical bloopers and I thought it was slow. Really slow. So slow, in fact, that if a cat had strolled across the screen that would have been the height of action.

I was tickled to see Barry Roberts as the driver of Emily's father's hearse. He is the local owner of draft horses, but these were regular horses. (Not huge, normal sized.)

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I saw Bette Midler on CBS' Sunday Morning and she's 71 years young and appearing on Broadway. She spoke of women 'of a certain age,' and I had heard that phrase before. I don't really know what that means because a much younger friend had used it about herself. Does it mean when the woman is certain about her life? Does it mean after menopause? Does it mean 'old enough to know better'? 

So I asked Google and I got:  "A lady of a 'certain age,' which means Certainly aged." ... The phrase was repopularized in a 1979 book by the psychotherapist Lillian B. Rubin, "Women of a Certain Age: The Midlife Search for Self," in which midlife spanned 35 to 54."

"Urban Dictionary has a far more specific term: "Ironically polite term for a woman who does not want her actual age known, e.g. one who is close to or just over the menopause."

So does that mean I am "a lady of an uncertain age"? Or just "incredibly vibrant and sexy, but old"? Maybe I should replace old with wise. Yeah, that's the ticket!

Personally, I don't mind telling my age -- I did a lot of living to get here and I don't regret one day. Well, maybe I regret a couple of days when I really should have told someone to fly off and I didn't, but that's another story.

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I am happy to report that my swishy palazzo pants came out great although I may have made the elastic in the waistband too loose. (Lautrec) I have a top that I'm making to go with them, but I didn't get a chance to work on it this weekend. Maybe tonight. I'm doing the boring parts like finishing raw edges. And then I have more fabric for one more top. I'm really impressed with myself that I can design and make something that I would actually wear. I'll report on progress later.

Have a great week! :)