I have this story posted to BlogSpot too but Donny likes LJ best so I shall be redundant.

The year is 1966. I am just into my last semester as a fine arts student at what was then RPI, now VCU, located in Richmond, Virginia. A division of William & Mary, RPI was a campus cobbled together in the fan district, the part of town where streets fanned out from the centrally located departments stores and town churches to meet the suburbs. School was composed of maybe four actual classroom buildings to include a three story gym with the art department being housed on the third floor. All other classes were held where ever a spot could be found. Mostly carriage houses or old homes.

Campus population was roughly half day students and half boarding, save a separate count of night school students who were mostly professionals adding onto their degrees. Those of us that lived on campus, found ourselves housed in former richly appointed homes. My dorm was the Bocock House on Franklin Street. I was one of its first inhabitants. Mrs Bocock had just opened the second floor of the front half of the house to the college. There were thirteen of us. By the time I graduated our numbers had increased to about twice that size since third floor rooms were added to the mix.

My first room was a corner room (they were huge) and overlooked the formal garden. My second room had hand painted French wall paper that used to drive us insane after a night of drinking. Red, white & blue plumes that danced freely for you. This room was in the middle of the second floor rooms (all the rest were corner rooms) and was actually a sitting room and thus very small compared to the others. Each room had its own bathroom complete with European water closet and claw footed bathtub. We had walk in, and walk through to the adjoining room, closets. Our room had its own small balcony, very Juliet like.

All of this narrative is to set the scene for RPI stories to follow in various posts. It was the sixties, women had curfews and were not allowed to wear pants on campus. I had to wear a raincoat over my bibs to and from art classes to avoid a call to the dean of women's office. I later got one but that is another story and for another reason.

The day of the Dylan concert I was hanging out at Andy's on Grace Street, the favored watering hole of business students. I was told recently by a fellow student that art students just did not go to Andy's. I really was not aware of this pecking order at the time. He explained that art students were not cool enough, or maybe too cool, but they gathered elsewhere. Since my roomie was a retailing major and I dated among her crowd I had a free pass to be among the elite. It was there that my drinking buddy (his gal pal was at home in Georgia birthing their college romance son, no pregnant gals allowed on campus in the sixties) said he had free tickets compliments of a friend that worked in the box office of the Mosque to a nifty concert and would I like to go. He promised it would rock my world. The Mosque was close to campus and appears as it sounds, very big, very ornate and very impressive. All campus dances were held in the lower level ballroom. Another story.

I accept his proposal and we part to prep for our date. When he picked me up, he tells me we can get better tickets than the balcony ones he has. We stop at the box office and trade our second balcony tickets in for front row, first balcony. He explains who I am about to see. I know a little about Dylan. A dorm mate had some of his albums, I thought them rough. The house is not packed and at that it is mostly older folks, I did not see anyone from campus. What kind of concert is this going to be?

Then this skinny guy walks out on the stage of this massive place with its elegant side box seats, ornately domed ceiling and layers of velvet curtains. He sits down in a straight back chair set center stage. He warms up for a minute, probably even smoking a cigarette. And then it begins. I fall in love, He is mesmerizing. A moment in time to treasure. I am a lucky gal.

I am obsessing over Sarah Palin. Whoever thinks anyone is bashing the daughter is playing the game exactly as Karl Rove wants it played, because now Sarah is going to get the underdog being beaten up on sympathy vote. In truth no one cares about Bristol's choices. What the flap is all about is the missing pregnancy pieces.

We see a photo of the Bristol bump in the spring. We see a photo of the svelte but secretly pregnant Sarah in the spring. But we read little to nothing to support or refute the circling rumors about these Palin gals.

We do have the Sarah in Texas story, labor starting, maybe, (fluid leaking IS a good sign). And she gets extreme tunnel vision that new child must be born in Alaska. No problem, I'm good at tunnel vision/obsessing so I personally get her crazy choice to soldier on and head home. I am qualified here, five births (one with leaking fluid) and six plus marathons (same page as birthing). I know the determined focus drill. But, to give a speech BEFORE heading home. (Must have been some speech. I really want to read/see it). Something is not right here. My guy, as supportive as he is with my choices, would have been giving me a speech of his own.

Some say Bristol might sadly have a miscarriage still leaving just one baby. One baby, two babies, it certainly is easy enough with connections to buy/get a baby so any scenario can be played out here. But really folks no one cares if the existing baby is a grandchild or child of Saint Sarah, or if she ends up having one of each. What we care about is cover-ups or lack of judgment, one or the other, and, as of this post, our Saturday Night Live actress look alike has not even been officially nominated yet.

I saw the first dismal match of the Olympics and like everyone thought our gals needed to really rethink their game and get it in gear pretty fast. Then with camp going on I missed all the middle games until the final show down for medal position. And what a different team I saw. They did get it together! They did look sharp and barely missing Abby. Sure Brazil had a few almosts but so did we and we got our one sweet awesome point!

I could not stop taking pictures of the victory celebration. So hope you enjoy the photo recap of that moment.

Congrats USA Womens' Soccer 2008 Olympic Gold Medalists.

The house is still topsy turvy but there a small pockets of sanity and flowers always provide a soothing effect to my way of thinking.

Lewis, Jess, Donny & I had fresh grass fed steaks grilled to perfection. Garden ready organic tomatoes compliments of a neighbor, steamed asparagus and baked potatoes rounded out with a fine merlot made our meal a delightful oasis amid the clutter.

Guess it's a good thing for our journeys that we went to the San Diego Marathon last year and, on the advice of a fellow runner, stopped in at the wonderful Kansas City Barbecue. Sigh, history gone forever, even if they rebuild. But I've got my pre-fire sale T-shirt!

Fire guts San Diego eatery featured in 'Top Gun'
Friday, June 27, 2008 6:49:06 AM

The restaurant where Tom Cruise crooned to Kelly McGillis in the movie "Top Gun" has been gutted by a fire in San Diego.

A cook at Kansas City Barbecue says the blaze started Thursday in an open cooking pit and spread quickly to the rest of the restaurant's interior.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque says the landmark restaurant is "destroyed."

But no one was hurt and the fire was extinguished in about 20 minutes.

A sign in the restaurant notes that the 1986 movie's "sleazy bar scene" was filmed there.

Luque estimates the damage at $400,000, not including the cost of photographs and props.

It was a swift trip to Equador for Sherry & Ionel in late May to be with Brandon at his splendid wedding. Things moved rather quickly from a Wednesday announcement by Sherry to the Friday wedding at Andrea's aunt's villa which Sherry said was a stunning mansion full of flowers at every turn.

We would have gone had we been asked we teased Brandon's sister, Stephanie when she and Jon had dinner with us during their vacation here last week. We too stated Stephanie except for the 2K per ticket!

And so we send our best wishes instead.

Seems like my sidebar is not showing up on all browsers. Sorry about that. Here is the link to The Other Me.

I'm going to wander over to The Other Me for a while so if you want to catch up on my wandering and wondering drop in there.

What a fun pre-Easter we had. We dyed eggs. We hide eggs. M&L hunted for eggs. And the nectarine trees were in bloom, almost as good as cherry blossoms. The weather was nippy but it did not daunt our outdoor fun, just sped it along some.

Lydia was pretty funny about finding Martin's eggs. (We had pre-marked the loot so they would have equal bounty and surprises). L would pick the egg up and see an M and just drop it like a hot potato.

Martin was more to the point in a totally different way. He just dropped the egg in Lydia's bucket. Or directed her to it.

Just wait until we have two more to pump up the activites even more!

D is slowly but very surely getting his second generation guys basketball team. AJ just added to the count with their announcement that they too are having a BOY!!

Donny told Andrew that the two couples might want to move even closer to each other so that the boys can be on the same sports teams and go to the same schools.

It is almost like having same sex twins. These guys will have two moms and two dads close at hand.

What fun!

From start to finish it was a birthday boy's dream party. Transformers to play with, Transformer Bingo, followed by a trip outside to tackle a candy and toy filled Transformer pinata. While every party goer got a whack Martin delivered the smashing blow. Candy scattered to the ground but barely touched before being scooped up and stored in individual loot bags.

Next came cake and Happy Birthday sung in German and English. Presents concluded the festivities and both Transformer and Lego gifts boosted Martin's inventory nicely.

The finale was several rounds of confetti filled popping bags that soon had the living room being more than colorful.

A take home party favor Transformer gummy put the stamp of approval on this birthday bash.

When I was in the third grade we lived on Guam. It was hot and humid 365 days a year. Mom put dresses on me for school. For what seemed like weeks and months, and maybe even was, I begged Mom to let me wear shorts like the other girls. They all wore pants every day, none wore dresses.

Finally Mom relented. I was elated, until I got to school.

It was picture day. All of the girls, every single one, had on dresses, except for me.

*Note how I am trying completely unsuccessfully to cover my legs with my hands.

Last Saturday Donny and I ran an 8K race together. It was in Manteo, very low key, about 60 folks. The course was flat, the weather perfect. We ran as a sweetheart team. We did not even come near the winners but we were the only team to cross the finish line together. Our time was 56+. We almost made all 5's but spent too much time deciding who would cross the line first each deferring to the other. Then Preacher Steve suggested that we hold hands and cross together, so you can figure how far back we were when we started our approach plan!

At first I was going to run the race by myself but then Donny decided to come along. About two miles into the race he began to question his sanity. He was behind me, using his usual tactic of walking then running to catch up with me which he did for awhile and then began to lag behind. So for the last two miles I hear this voice from behind me periodically calling out how long is this road? why are we doing this? where is the 4? where is the turn? I really admire him, he had to do some serious running to catch up. I think I would have let him stay ahead of me if the tables had been turned. But catch up he did and we finished in true team style.

It was a good way to start off Valentine's week.

I fix a salad most every night as many of you know. And I do a pretty good job of chopping the veggies because I personally like everything bite size. So last Wednesday I put our usual salad and give Donny his.

He's got the UNC duke out on. I head to another room to combine the game and Project Runway. Midway through my salad I get a bite of what feels like a rock or nut. The room is dark. Hmmmm....I have not bitten down hard so I remove the chunk and give a look see. It's a snail shell. Egads. Where did that come from? The only thing I can figure out is that it must have been in the spinach bundle that I washed but did not take apart.

I finish my salad and toss the shell into my now empty bowl and turn my attention to the Tarheels. A few sad minutes later I turn my head to gather gear for a trip to the kitchen and there sliming across the bed is a very much alive and very well looking snail!!

It has come all the way from California, through various Harris Teeter check points, my Henckels knife guillotine plus a narrow escape with my chops to find itself merrily investigating life on the east coast.

I put it outside in the garden.

Martin and Lydia declared a moratorium on cousins but no one seems to be listening. And aren't we glad, we certainly did not declare a moratorium on grands or greats. So M&L not only do you get two new 1st cousins this year, you also get two new 2nd cousins.

Melanie already announced that she & Chad are expecting in August. And on that note Donald might just owe Melanie a bit of kowtowing (although no one faults him in the least for not driving to Grandma's bash when he was too drained to take on the trek). Melanie drove there and home again all by herself, five+ hours each way, not counting bathroom breaks of which Melanie said she had to make more stops than the girls. True she was delivering Kenny's girls to him and so had them as company going. And she did stay overnight. But the home trip was solo. We women are tough.

And now back to our story. Diane reports in that Robert & Leslie are expecting in August. Babies, babies everywhere. Also due in August but no cousin threat to M&L are our neighbors. The interesting detail here is that their one and only biological child just got his drivers' license.

Continuing on the new baby thread, there are murmurings that Donald might be interested in reopening the GeekNanny doors for Baby Balls. Emily is all over that one claiming her rights. He's mine. I had him first. I want him back!!

Grands and Greats. We're excited!!

Andrew & Jenn called last night with THE news. And so it is official! Their very own Baby Ball is due in August.

We have been anticipating this call and pretty much had it figured out but very trying hard not to spoil their surprise, probably trying as hard as they were trying to keep from saying anything. And so we have tiptoed around each other over the last few visits. We do very much agree with their strategy. We did the same thing. Wait and wait to tell until you are about to pop. But you wait partly because there are less of those forever remaining months and also because, for all its commonness, pregnancy can throw any number of curve balls at you.

And so for our part new beds have moved to the top of the to do list. Platform beds with trundles? Murphy beds for the youngsters that can fold up when not in use? Hmmm....maybe some of each. And then there is the new porch rail project. Thankfully we have a bit more time to solve both to our satisfaction and actually since summer, way before it suddenly became a necessity, have been reviewing and chatting about options.

It's going to be so much fun. Martin and Lydia will be the esteemed older cousins. At first they threw their hands up in dismay over the Baby Ball news. No cousins, we have too many already. But I think that they quickly figured out that being the oldest has its perks. I know, I am an oldest cousin and vacations were sweet. Leader of the pack that's me.

Congrats AJ!!! Your joy is contagious.

It is going to be delightful, our newly revised home. Already the new all-house water filter system is a dream, as is the new entrance room and the new faucets and the new toilets.

But meanwhile we are camping in a house with piles of stuff everywhere but where they belong, while interior detail work gets done. Not even tidy piles! I am my mother's daughter and a tidy pile is her thing as is mine. But there are too many piles to even consider tiding them. And three of the bedrooms have broken beds covered with (partly why they are broken) and surrounded by piles and piles.

Can't died in a cornfield whatever that means. My grandmother used to say it and so I pass it on and never can say what it means except that can't is a negative word. BUT still I have a can't do list of things I could do now, however: I cannot paint as paint has not be acquired, I cannot patch ceiling problems as material has not been acquired, I cannot stain and begin organizing storage shelves as Virgil has trim work yet to do. And sadly Virgil fell on another job last week and is suffering aches and pains thankfully nothing more. That added to the fact that he has started another job and only gets here on weekends has slowed the shelf project. Truthfully if all the can'ts were dealt with I would be finding excuses not to paint, patch or stain because the job is SO big. It definitely needs to be one room at a time to keep focused and make progress.

I tell myself it could be worse, as in huge hurricane or fire or tornado damage and the actual reality of this comes home as I pass a friend's house today. Totally burnt out by fire over a year ago, he is living in the literal cinder block wall foundation with no roof while divorce litigation ties up any repair work at all.

It could be worse, it really could!

I have hit two home runs cooking wise this week.

First, I made an awesome French onion soup using a recipe for the current issue of Cook's. The key really is to deglaze, deglaze, deglaze those onions. And use a fairly strong onion to start with. I did not have all of the ingredients but only discovered this after starting the onion process in the oven. So I forged ahead. I was missing a broth base as I had not restocked since Christmas. To substitute I made a slurry with Marmite and water and this worked perfectly. So not only did we have a thick yummy soup on a cold night, it was even healthier for us since Marmite, being yeast based, is loaded with B vitamins. For the final step I used two small Le Creuset sauce pans to handle individual servings that could go in the oven. There really is no other way to melt and brown the cheese topping properly.

Tonight I used Giada's Italian pork chops recipe to bring home the bacon again. I got two really nice thick all natural chops from Coastal Provisions. Giada wanted them seasoned and then coated in Parmesan cheese, dipped in beaten egg and finally covered in bread crumbs. On to a medium cooking in olive oil sealed everything together. Another good cold night meal.

Enjoy!

We went to visit mom yesterday for 4th Christmas (pictures soon) and on the way home I got a voicemail saying my computer was ready. We valiantly tried to get to the Mac specialist before 5 O'clock closing and I called several times to say we were on our way and where we were. The gal said she left right at 5 but was staying a bit late as another customer was due in. At 5:10 we were about 3 miles from the shop but in heavy rush hour traffic. I called. She could not stay another minute. She was afraid of the dark. I could only think of how the same thing had happened when I tried to get Becki to her emergency dentist appointment New Years' Eve and likewise we were told, the dentist could not stay another minute, even though we were but minutes away albeit this time too in rush hour traffic. Since I was driving and my GPS took us on a 'short' route I felt responsible and knew my payback karma would be coming. Becki was sweet. She said she really did not want to go anyway (it was to check a sore tooth which she had a real appointment for a few days later). But still, I have paid my dues. Now to get my computer.

While visiting SC last weekend D's younger sister, Beth, mentioned to me that she had taken up running last fall and had just finished her first 5K coming in second in her age group! She was excited. She said her training plan was simple, 30 minutes every day no matter what. No more, no less.

On the way home I thought about the plan and decided it was perfect for me too. I am the one who can find really great excuses to put off training and usually do. It was late when we got home, but I needed to put the plan into action or I would already be using an excuse. So at 2AM (yes it was technically the next day but since I had not gone to sleep yet I counted it as still being Sunday and I did run later Monday also) I ran guided by starlight and it was wonderful. While running I came up with a name for the plan, the MEE30 (Beth's initials plus 30 minutes). It's such an easy plan to follow because it is just too short a time span to whimper and whine about rain, being tired, no time etc etc. I do already workout by going to step classes and yoga but they will not count in the MEE30. This is a whole separate thing, no double dipping.

Now I'm into my second week and challenge you to join in. It can be walking, jogging, combined, indoor, outdoor, treadmill, pushing the baby buggy, following the kids on their bikes, roller blading, whatever, you chose, as long as you are moving steadily for 30 minutes. At the end of each month or there abouts let me know how you are doing. It does not matter if you are a friend or not. If you are a random reader and want to take the challenge just drop a comment here. There may even be prizes involved. Nothing fancy but definitely unique. My goal is to better my racing times. Your goal can be, well, your goal.

The MEE30 for better health and better you and me and we.