Wrap it up - February 2014

 A busy month filled with some non-busy days due to the snow.  One of the things I love about snow days is that outside life stops, no 5:15 am wake up calls, no rat race days rushing to pick up at schools, just time to play and be lazy.

So what went down in the shortest month of the year.

- Finished up round one deadlines for summer teacher institutes/workshops
- Read three books including two audiobooks
- Two trips to Charlotte
- Met up with Brian at the Carolinas Aviation Museum
- Met up with high school girlfriends for a overnight spa weekend
- Three snow days spent sledding, snowman building, watching the Air Bud franchise
- Saw two Oscar contender movies in a movie theater
- Did two date nights and a family birthday celebration for Bill
- Made the first cut for the 2014 Raleigh-Durham Listen to Your Mother Show. I had to decline an audition spot as I could not commit to the required table readings if I made the final cast.  I would consider resubmitting next year and will for sure plan to see the show in May again.  So good!

Favorite picture of the month, from round two of snow and ice.  Kids love snow in a way no adult can.

Almost Wordless Wednesday- The mini Don Draper edition

What to you get when you take 21 seven and eight years old producing goods for an Economics fair?  Ben's choices using his classroom money:  bookmarks, a blue boat made of Popsicle sticks, a fan, multiple rainbow loom bracelets, homemade crayons, a key chain, several pictures including a classmate that was selling them BOGO! I love a seven year old entrepreneur!

The paper plate on the left is a "bad dream catcher."  Ben went into intricate detail about how it works and how we needed to hang it by a string over his bed.  I also loved the white triangle in the top left corner that was a "claw."  Nothing says 2nd grader than someone peddling claws for sale.  Ben was especially proud that he sold out early with some kids buying 2 of his LED throwies at a time. He told the slogan he created and was saying as people came by his desk to draw them in.  He asked if we could use up the leftovers to make a few more to give to his friends in other classes.  Thanks 2nd grade teacher team for sparking some creativity and some pint sized Mad Men.

Callin' in Bill

Happy 39th Birthday Bill! Cupcakes and plans for dinner out were left before I walked out this morning.

A big, huge thank you to the birthday boy, man, man-boy, whatever for taking on Ben's recent Enterprise Activity/Economics Fair for his 2nd grade class.  Before you say, "are YOU the one that tapes a diaper, paycheck stub, and a Target bag to your classroom board to teach the Circular Flow of Money in your desire to make every last one of us economic nerds? Why yes I do, but Bill jumped on the chance to help Ben pick something tech related he could create.

Hence the LED throwie that Ben mass produced for the Economics Free Enterprise Fair at school today.

The assignment was simple, the students have been earning classroom money for the last weeks to spend at the fair.  Each student had to mass produce 15 like items that could not be food or candy related.  Ben's teacher gave out a project sheet with suggestions, Bill almost immediately thought of something that Ben's fellow 7 and 8 year old peers would want to part with their dollars to buy.  Ben had already told me of some of the items HE planed to buy including a tomahawk made of sponges and a bad dream eraser that he assured me would work on adults too.

The project uses the following fairly cheap materials:  10 mm diffused LED in multiple colors, 3 V lithium battery, 1/8 " thick nickle and copper plated magnet, and a roll of black duck tape.  We didn't use the conductive epoxy that is optional and substituted duck tape for strapping tape.  Bill spend around $20 online for all items and created a test version before pitching to Ben.

Bill helped Ben assemble each throwie and then bagged each with a message printed on cardstock that included how to use the on/off switch, replace the battery, the online project instructions, and a warning that the magnet was strong and not to allow small children to handle.  Way to go Bill for being his own Consumer Product Safety Commission!  The process took about 2 hours to create all 15 and bag and tag them for the Economics fair.

I was really proud of Ben for the amount of help he put in without whining about having to spend part of the weekend doing school work.  I was really proud and appreciative of Bill for taking this on without complaint and picking something that was truly a joint parent/child project.  Double win all around.

A Girl Scout Classic Medley

No matter what happens or where life takes us there will always be four lifelong friends that the old Girl Scout song applies. 

"Make new friends..."

Brownie Troop 79- 1981

"But keep the old..."

EHS Senior Day- 1993 

"One is silver and the other gold..."

Family meet up at the lake- Summer 2013

Someone commented the middle picture was the one we all communally had framed in sparsely furnished freshmen dorm rooms.  No matter what happens I know that I can just pick up the conversation where we last stopped.

Love you ladies, for all the years behind us and all the years to come.

xoxo-
Dorothy 

February Love List

Ahh February... shortest month of the year and so far a second winter blast.  Yes YOU Winter, are making the Love List.

1. WINTER- Sheer joy that is building snowmen, snow motorcycles, snow racing tracks... you get the picture.  Three and seven year olds don't see missed work to make up, bundles of wet clothes, the potential for car wrecks, or cabin fever, they just see FUN. This second round of winter weather was perfect for packing into snowballs for a monster neighborhood snow battle. Does it help my feelings that the last three missed school days are being made up with a single converted early release day? Does it defy reason that there seems to be a slush fund of hours student HAVE to make up that have suddenly been produced?  I don't care, we will have a full week of Spring Break given no more weather related absences.

Can I get an AMEN?!

2.  "Special Bath" With more time at home we took a "special bath" several nights to warm up cold bodies. It is pure joy when I turn the whirlpool jets on is crazy amounts of laughing from the boys.  I keep finding Ian in our bedroom many a night buried under the covers after sneaking out of his own bed. When I asked why he is again in our master bedroom, the answer (usually sleepily), "I like looking at the special bathtub" which is visible from the bed when the bathroom door are open.  

Three year old logic, for real. 

3.  Cupcakes, especially those from Sugar Mama's.  I'm heading out of town tomorrow and guess what is going as a hostess thank you... you guessed it.  I told her to surprise me with a variety knowing whatever flavors included will be a little bit of dessert perfection.  My friend Eileen, the owner, recently celebrated 500 likes on her FB page.  I couldn't help but comment that I am so, so happy that this is a dream realized for her.  

4. Winter Olympics- Ben is obsessed with watching events on fast forward the day after.  Snowboarding?- Yep,  Ski Jumping?- Why not,  Bobsledding?- I've seen Cool Runnings?  Family movie night?

5.  Uncle Brian!!! We are 2 for 2 in 2014  monthly meeting up in a mutual New Year's resolution to see each other more. Sunday's trip to Charlotte was perfect, a leisurely drive over, lunch at a kid friendly venue, and then almost 3 hour of chatting and making sure Ian didn't escape onto the tarmac.  We also celebrated Brian's 36th birthday with what else... cupcakes!  Next month we are renting a condo in Boone and are going snow tubing before the season is over.

I love, love, love this pic taken on his fall trip to SF.  He oozes awesomeness!

6.  Friends who hijack other people's Facebook posts.  

While snowbound my high school girlfriends responded to the following innocent question, "where do you go in Greenville (SC) to find a prom dress" with the following thread.  Mostly these are all inside jokes between us that have lived on thanks to social media.  Today's memories brought to you by memories of a prom date that had to open his sunroof to fit uh... someone's high early '90s hair.

Even more awesome is that we are meeting up tomorrow at Melissa's lakehouse for a planned overnight meetup as three of four of use have birthdays within one month.  On the agenda?  Facials at a local spa, deck sitting with expected warm weather with cocktails in hand, and lots and lots of reasons that nearly 40 year old friendships rock.  

Thanks February, you really were a month of love even if most of it was enjoyed frozen.

Off Season Camp Mommy Road Trip- Carolinas Aviation Museum

Sunday the boys and I met up with Uncle Brian in Charlotte at the Carolinas Aviation Museum. I had bought a 20.00 Groupon back in the fall that allowed us admission for two adults and two children.  Technically we wouldn't have paid for Ian as children under 5 are free,  but we still came out ahead.

The exhibit is near the Charlotte-Douglas Airport and while they don't have a raised observation deck (like we do here in Raleigh,) from the outside area you can watch planes arrive and depart.

This was the perfect amount of museum for a good 2-3 hours visit and day trip.  The museum is housed in a refurbished hangar once privately owned for the Wachovia fleet of planes.  The major focus is the "Miracle on the Hudson," the infamous flight lead by Capt Chesley Sulleberger in which 155 lives were saved after an emergency landing in the Hudson River.  There are about ten other helicopters, planes, smaller planes, and lots of displays about the equipment.  The boys were in Heaven.

The actual plane that landed on the Hudson river is intact and on display.  There are multiple related exhibits about the mechanics of how it landed successfully in a river.  Ben, my disaster loving child, was beside himself first at the number of planes but also the story of the plane crash and the heroes involved in the rescue.  It was the perfect opportunity to talk about how little actions can lead to heroic decisions.  

Other highlights included an ejection seat from an F4 Phantom.  Needless to say it took a bit of convincing Ian to let someone else have a turn.  The boys also really enjoyed the model cockpit.  Overhead from my brother Brian,

"you and Bill should build one of these in your living room.  I bet you could leave for a good two weeks before they noticed you were gone."  Ask what they were playing?  Did you guess disaster in which Ian had to put out a fire?  Did you guess yelling and screaming of "I'm on fire?"  It helped that no one was around to witness this spectacle and we did reel it in when another family showed up to test out the cockpit.

We visited this museum at the right time of year as I believe summer in the un- airconditioned hangar would have been really hot.  Brian and I kept laughing at the biggest ceiling fans throughout, wondering what was written on the face of the fan.  It wasn't until I zoomed in with my camera that we laughed even harder.

While the museum is very kid friendly, we also saw many older people, many with US Veterans insignias.  They have a great selection of posters showing the history of aviation and flight.  Ben picked out a poster showing all types of tanks of past and present.

The Carolinas Avaiation Museum is a must if local for a day trip to Charlotte.  Check it out!

Hours

Monday-Friday:
Saturday:
Sunday:

10am - 4pm
10am - 5pm
1pm - 5pm

Admissions

General:
Students age 6 to 18:
Children 5 and under:
(with family visit only)

$12.00
$10.00
Free

Spring Break Sponsorship- Wrap it up!

A busy weekend including a road trip to Charlotte today to see Uncle Brian and tour the Carolinas Aviation Museum.  More tomorrow for my local friends as this was a must do day trip with kidos, especially those in love with planes.

In the meantime we are back at school tomorrow for what I hope will be a full week.  After this many days home with the boys, I can wholeheartedly say I feel for Jack Torrance in The Shining right about now.

Whoever is continuing to shake a snow globe, please stop.

Thanks-

Spring Break Sponsorship Day 3 - You Sweet Thing

Ben and Ian woke up to Valentine's Day cakes.  Be the awesome mom I am... ahem... let them eat them for breakfast but then refused when they were going bat sh#t crazy just trying to get clothes on them to get out the door. Since school was out again today for both boys we decided that we would venture out for a bit and get out some energy.  First stop, a local bounce house for the first slot and least germfest time of the day.

Today we also sent out a couple of special Valentines.  First up, since I didn't manage to get Valentine cards to my mother in law before the snow hit, I decided that we would send a video card.  It just happened that over the Christmas holidays I found a box of old letters including a elementary V Day box filled with old Valentines from what looks like 3rd or 4th grade.  I just couldn't toss them so I showed them to Ben and we decided to use them to write messages to Grandmommy Pam.

I found an easy to sing (for Ian) song online and we practiced.  This is a screenshot of the final result:
I intended to post, but Bill reminded me that since we used commercial music in the background we didn't want YouTube to take it down.  Alas, we sent it privately to Pam.

Since today is ALSO my brother's birthday I decided to also create a similar video card for him as well.  I had to personalize Brian's card with lots of inside jokes and the worst cards of the lot.  I personally liked this one:

The boys and I are heading to Charlotte Sunday provided the snow continues to melt to meet up with Brian to celebrate his birthday plus visit the Carolinas Avaiation Museum.  Happy Weekend all, may you dig out from the snow and enjoy some time back in the real world.

Spring Break Sponsorship- Day 2- Cold Hands and Warm Hearts

Today's Spring Break day brought to you by a full on traditional snow day.  We spent an enormous amount of time outside sledding, building a snowman, walking the dog to the neighborhood lake to watch the ducks walk across the ice.  I shoveled the walk, porch, and driveway and declared any calories consumed had been burned off.  We made homemade chili and Valentine's treats and drank way too much hot chocolate.

Most of the afternoon was spent working on a surprise Valentine's Day event for both Grandmommy Pam (since we missed getting actual Valentine's into the mail) AND since it is Brian's birthday tomorrow I opted to make a similar surprise for him as well.

Here's a hint......

Like my 1980s Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Garfield Valentines? They are the real deal from a found homemade V Day box made in elementary school.  Goodness knows why I still had them mixed in with some old birthday cards.

Tonight, I am refusing to do anything related to school work and am watching the final episode of House of Cards to get ready for tomorrow's premiere.

Seriously, this is the only Card I want on Valentine's Day.  Porn, people.  Political porn I tell you and so, so good.  I could watch this show for Robin Wright's killer style, but add in a plot line worthy of a Shakespearean drama, and I'm all in.  

  

Spring Break Sponsorships

Starting a little mini-series today.  We are out today with what appears to be around 4-5 inches of snow at Casa Vinson.  This makes day 5 of missed school due to weather.  Given the road conditions and the expected icing over tonight, my guess is we will return on Monday.

The snow was predicted to start midday and unlike the snow event of two weeks ago, it came on hard and fast.  At 12:30 pm there was a few flurries, but by 1:30 it was treacherous driving.  Bill took a big one for the team and took Ben to work with him for a few hours. Basically he found an empty office, raided the employee kitchen for snacks and let him play his DS for a good 3 hours.   I picked Ben up just in time to get home before the snow really kicked in.  Sorry boys, when I dropped the F bomb in the car screaming at a driver trying to make an illegal U turn IN THE SNOW!  

Ian's daycare graciously opened up during the morning so in he went for a few hours while I plowed through work that came home in anticipation of weather. At this point our spring break is effectively gone.  We were already eating into the week we had at the end of March after the last weather event.  With this snow we will get the Friday and maybe the Thursday of Spring Break but most likely the rest of the week is now going to be make-up days.  By state law we cannot take convertible days off so just calling in sick is not an option.

I went ahead and contacted my MIL to let her know plans to meet her in Atlanta during the week were off. Due to her job, she has to be available at the end of the quarter and cannot take takes off past the Wednesday of Spring Break week.  I promised we would come earlier that our usual August to see her in Florida and that in the meantime we need to make more of an effort to FaceTime.  The boys practiced being singing valentines today during the many hours were were inside. My intention is to call Pam Friday since I missed getting Valentines in the mail to her.

So in the best possible light of trying to make the best of the next days home I'm bringing you a mini-series of Spring Break sponsorships.  Today's Spring Break Day has been brought to you by the discovery of the
Air Bud Franchise of movies on Nextflix by the boys.  I watched the first one with them, but I HAD to excuse myself to other pressing things like cleaning pee off the floor from 3.75 year olds with bad aim.  As far as kid movies go, this was not bad, just CHEEZY and the mom I swear has made the circuit on some bad Lifetime movie about a predator I'm still trying to forget.

Happy Snow Day (s).  I hope you are staying warm, your loved ones are safe, and you are watching an endless supply of movies about dogs with superhuman capabilities.

Randomly hugging strangers

If you don't already know this about me, you wouldn't likely be surprised that I'm not a big touchy-feely person.  I am affectionate with my kids, but outside of Ben and Ian I'm the same stoic person I've been my entire life.  The retired Navy veteran turned History teacher I share my classroom with told me once that nothing seems to phase me at work. He commented that I'm as tough as many females he served with in Iraq (which I find very hard to believe), and I have a mouth of a sailor.  Coming from him I'll take that last comment as a compliment.

When I came home from Kenya last year, the one aspect of the trip that really resonated with me was to be intentional in my relationships.  Add to this motivation to focus on saying it, doing it, living it and not waiting around for some perfect chance.  Today is that perfect chance. Regret can take up residence with someone else.

I wish I could say that I live by this own outlook everyday, but I don't.  I can't tell you how many times the "woulda, shoulda, coulda" take up space in my head on a repeat loop.

Yesterday I went to my usual early service with the boys at church.  This series of messages has been especially what I needed to hear at the right time.  At the "turn to your neighbor and say hello moment," the same one that I really hate, I noticed that the woman sitting solo in front of me had been crying.  She wasn't Titanic movie ending crying, but it was obvious that she was upset.

The rest of the service moved on and she continued to keep dabbing at her eyes.   At the end of the service I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "I don't normally do this, like ever do this, but I'm really sorry that something is pressing on you today.  Could I give you a hug."  She first looked a little surprise, but said, "thank you, yes that would make me feel like I mattered to someone today."  I was almost surprised at myself for completely being out of my comfort zone offering to hug some random stranger.

Later in the afternoon I totally blew off the mountain of work I needed to get done to start the week.  Instead I did this...

then this....

and then packed up these for local delivery...

Sometime last week I was talking to my friend Eileen, that owns the cupcake business. I asked if I could pick up cupcakes for my student teacher and the 1st year teacher I mentor to keep them encouraged and let them know they are doing a great job with their students.  Eileen texted me that she had 3 dozen cupcakes and did I want them on Friday when she wraps up her business for the week and discounts whatever she has left.  At first I intended to say, sure I'll just put all of them back for the boys and take some to my brother next weekend.  But then I thought about those post Kenya thoughts.  I thought about how much I am not a fan of Valentine's Day from the standpoint of the commercialization and exploitation of what constitutes a relationship or better yet, a lack of a relationship.

I decided to make some local deliveries with Ian in the car to friends' mailboxes with cupcakes and cheezy Target kids valentines. I followed up with a short email saying to check their mailbox, that I wouldn't eat anonymous food including cupcakes from Sugar Mama's. I added that in a week that is focused on love and relationships, that I value their friendship as an important relationship.

Will I be randomly hugging strangers again soon?  Most likely no. Being intentional in telling those that make my life have purpose and meaning?  I hope I will continue this practice as important and worthy of the minuscule amount of time that it takes.

Frozen on Friday- #2

Paula Deen, you owes me one.  You heard me queen of butter and inappropriate comments, I remade one of your delights into something my health-nut brother would eat. (ok, he smokes, negating the fact he rides a mountain bike and has a pork-rind free diet.)

I was looking for a banana bread recipe to use up some overripe fruit plus to have something healthy to take to my brother when I saw him last.  I used a PD recipe I've used before with modification.

This bread freezes beautifully and has become a breakfast staple, toasted with a little light cream cheese.

**Healthier Paula Deen Banana Bread***
Original source credit- http://www.food.com/recipe/paula-deen-banana-bread-244423

2 cups all-purpose ( I used 1 1/2 cups whole wheat + 1/2 cup flax seed)
1 cup sugar ( reduced to 3/4 cup to account for the additional fruit sweetness)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup melted butter (I used 1/3 and replaced the moister with light sour cream)
4 very ripe bananas (I used 3 and mushed them up)
2 eggs
1/2 -cup pecans (reserve)

Additional items:
1/2- cup golden raisins
1/2- cup dried cranberries
1/2 light sour cream (extra moisture)

2  tablespoons melted butter +  1 tsp cinnamon +1/4 cup brown sugar + pecans- On a separate foil lined combine the melted butter plus sugar.  Coat the pecans and toast on 375 until caramelized.  Set aside.

Combine all dry ingredients and add melted butter, eggs and banana. mix well.  I typically by hand and not with my stand mixer to keep some banana chunkiness.

Fold in the raisins, cranberries and pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 45 mins.  In the last 20 minutes sprinkled the caramelized pecans on top of bread and continue to bake.

Servings- 12 slices

Habits: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly Sad

Next week Ben's school is hosting a Healthy Habits Fair.  His Jazzercise teacher told us they would be performing and that we were welcome to attend and also participate by getting things like bone density tests and blood pressure checks.  Basically it is a "be good to your body aka mixer for the area old people" the day before Valentines Day.  Regardless, Ben is excited that he gets to be on the morning announcements advertising the event.

The school also ran a poster contest for all grades to help decorate the event space.  Ben designed a poster showing himself making good and bad choices.  I'm not quite sure how you change ethnicity when you smoke or appear to become a cyclops, but I'm proud of the time the effort he put into his poster.

The healthy habit talk has made it into Ben's current vocabulary with many discussions about making good food choices, making sure exercise is part of your day, going to bed at a reasonable time, choosing to play outside over playing video games.  A couple of the snow days he went with me to the gym and ran laps. He asked me to show him how to use the bike, the rowing machine, and the exercise ball.  I'm sure we looked funny as I showed him some yoga stretches. If I can encourage him in any way to think from a healthy state of mind, it is worth the second glances from folks wondering why we were doing down dogs together.

Ben asked me the other day what Mema had died from, that he knew she was sick and had a special chair . He asked if she died because she didn't have healthy habits? Wow, what a loaded question.  I thought about it and then responded that Mema had an illness that became very hard to treat, even going to the hospital did not make her well and that her sickness had made her die.  I said that she did do many things to try and get better but that many of the things that made her sick started a long time ago and over time became hard to reverse.

I used the chance to speak to how the little choices we make every day give us a chance to live a long and healthy life. It was the most honest answer I could give him on his level. It was also one that I could live with without unleashing some deep seeded anger that my mom was behind much of her own demise.

In a horrible segway, I've read or listened to several pieces remembering actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman this week  There have been discussions a plenty about drug use, celebrity, rehab, many with a resounding judgement that while a tragedy, that he did this to himself.  True, and no one can deny that drug use starts with personal choice.  Sadly, I have seen/read little in the way on the nature of addiction being spoken of as an illness and not a character flaw.  I have compassion for his kids who will one day read their names as part of a Google search about their dad's tragic demise.   I have compassion for his partner that seemed to be making a call of tough love of unimaginable proportion.   I am selfishly sorry for the next 20-30 years of films never to be made by such a talented actor.

Bill and I were talking about favorite films and characters the other night upon hearing the news of the death. For Bill, he loved "25th Hour" with Edward Norton and "Charlie Wilson's War" with Tom Hanks.  As much as I thought Capote and Doubt were Oscar worthy as anything else made in their respective year, my two favorite movie's were released in 2007.

Both used a sibling relationship as the centerpiece of the movie.  In "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" he plays brothers with Ethan Hawke in a story of a botched robbery and extortion of the family business with horrible consequences.  In "The Savages" he teams with another of my favorites, Laura Linney, to play siblings taking control of their aged father in the search for end of life care. In both movies, the relationship and dialogue between fictional siblings is seamless. Even non verbal body language exemplifies the unbelievable stress each character is under and the shared burden that ties them together.  They are completely believable as siblings experiencing the most stressful time in their lives and the need to rely on each other.

Of the several pieces I've read, A. O. Scott's article in the New York Times captured why his death is such a loss to those who considered him a master at his craft:

He did not care if we liked any of these sad specimens (of characters.) The point was to make us believe them and to recognize in them — in him — a truth about ourselves that we might otherwise have preferred to avoid. He had a rare ability to illuminate the varieties of human ugliness. No one ever did it so beautifully.

Weekend

After being housebound with our major snow event, we spent a bulk of the weekend outside.  From snow midweek to 65 degrees yesterday, hello NC weather.

Friday night my old neighborhood bookclub met.  The host had picked Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters, which once again I was the only person who liked the book.  Really?  The food was amazing as was the chance to get out of yoga pants and my well beat up UNC sweatshirt and into some real clothes.  See, all wasn't lost on trying to defend a top 2013 book.  If they trash Wonder, my book up next month, I swear I am not reading another book for this group this year.  I will only go for the food and the company.

Saturday I went to kickboxing and quick grocery run + errands.  Later, Bill and I did a date afternoon to see Gravity for a one week re-release at our local IMAX.  We had missed it last fall and I wanted to see it before awards season.  Not knowing the ending helped keep the tension going and oh boy does Sandy B rock it like a hurricane in some t-shirt and boy shorts action.  She is how old again?

After getting the boys we headed to a friend's family- friendly birthday party at a local Irish Pub.  Normally I would be not thinking "Irish pub" and "family friendly" belong in the same sentence, but alas our friend's spouse had rented out the back room.  The host had taken his love of Slim Jims and Scotch to new decorating heights.  We let the boys try a Sasquatch meat stick.  Take a wild guess who said, "nasty" and who polished off a giant "flamin' hot" variety in .912 sec.

Sunday we did church, library, haircuts, a walk with the dog, and bikes outside.  Bill and I traded time so I could attend a local chamber orchestra performance in the afternoon.  I swear other than the three kids nearby looking o-so-bored with their grandparents who had so obviously drug them to a cultural event, I was the youngest in attendance.  It was great concert despite the ironically named "hipster baroque event."
Believe me the only "hipster" this early bird special group had going for them was the desire not to break a hip just walking in.

Sunday night our neighbors came over to watch the Superbowl until halftime.  As am admitted  non sports person, I was there for the food but really didn't care who won the game.

It was a good weekend, relaxed with both nights with more than seven hours of sleep.  I told Bill that in my old age I cannot do it on less than 6 hours of sleep.  After a week basically at home, I'm starting to say that I can't do it on less than 7 hours of sleep.  Maybe I was right in my element on the whole "early bird special" crowd.

Happy start of February-