. . . even though we’re late getting this posted to say so!
Saturday, Mar 23 I went this afternoon to the Celebration of Life for Marty Kaatz, my friend and colleague who died last Nov, and John stayed home to plant his five new plum trees. The Celebration of Life was surprisingly interesting. Many family members and older colleagues spoke. A large number of friends, community members and university folks were present. The place was full. They had some tables and chairs and then set up a bunch of chairs in rows in front of the food, behind the tables and chairs to the front of the room near the speakers. Speakers included their son, his wife, a granddaughter, several Emeriti Geography profs who taught with him, a retired historian who served with him on the Brooks Friends of the Library committee, a close friend for over 40 years who with her husband joined Marty and Carla on hiking, skiing, and other trips and dinners over the years. By the time I arrived at CWU in 1988, he was retired, but he stayed involved with the department, faculty, students, and community until the end. He and I shared materials, research efforts, students, and he even sat in on my introductory GIS (Geographic Information Systems) class. I taught him how to use PowerPoint, and he gave wonderful visuals with his research. Today, the food included fruit/veggies (the largest strawberries I have EVER seen (larger than a golf ball and they were tasty too. Cheeses on a plate, bread, crackers, and a bunch of cookies and a very large Italian cake. It was nutty with excellent thick cream cheese frosting.
Lots of people there I knew, some faces recognized (but without a name), and it was a nice reunion/celebration of wonderful memories of a great fellow. Luckily, I got to sit down for the first hour and also while I ate and visited toward the end of the afternoon.
When I got home, we called John’s cousin, in PA, who was 95 today! She had a big party and lots of the family came in from around the state and nearby states. They had pizza, salad, coffee, cake and ice cream. We talked to her for 25 min. getting a review of the party, all the cards, food, gifts, people there (~30, so was like a family reunion). She has already reserved the room (in her apt complex) for next year’s party and invited us. We then called her daughter, Pat, and for 20 min. talked to her and John’s sister, Peggy, who was staying there until tomorrow, when she returns to Ohio. Pat said her hubby Ken had bought a Powerball lottery ticket for tonight’s drawing, and if they won they would pay for someone to look after our animals so we could come out! Sounds like a plan (but they didn’t win). Now John’s out exercising the dogs, feeding the horses, and will come back and feed the cats. He threw together a nice dinner, hamburger, sliced Jarlsberg cheese, cut Honeycrisp apples, and baked beans which I had on top of my hamburger. Been spending time on a recommendation nomination for a graduate student for the award John and I fund each year. It’s in the CWU Geography department and is called the Hultquist Distinguished Service Award, for Graduate students in the Resource Management program, or the undergraduates in the Geography department. Here’s a link to the explanation.
Sunday, March 24 Checked for Jim Carvo’s obituary, and made a new pdf file without all the advertisements. Worked on various projects.
Monday, Mar 25 Stayed home to work on taxes, but have been slowed with other pressing emails needs. John did not go to White Heron pruning today. Cameron, the winemaker went to Seattle. We went to town to deliver my car to have its seatbelt fixed (more below). We’ll retrieve it in the late afternoon tomorrow. Finally, finished sending hay articles and the nomination recommendation. A friend called about his need for an immediate operation (tomorrow) in Bellevue on a detached retina, result of 2% failure (rate) in a previous operation. (He’s doing all right now, several days later.)
Tuesday, Mar 26 John off at 7:30 a.m. I must get work done on taxes. First, I checked email, and while doing that, got a call that my car is already fixed (seat belt replacement). They also found that a drain tube near the Moon/Sun roof had shrunk and come undone and that’s why water was filling the area and (during winter) froze the belt’s environment. Phew. Happy to have it fixed and will get it this afternoon when John gets home. The mechanics went down the street and bought longer plastic tubing to install. I installed PDFlite software today (free) and it allows me to take music from my SongWriter software and make a .pdf file from it. That becomes an easy way of sharing with our Fiddlers and Friends group.
Received a sad note from the wife of another retired colleague (Joel), that his cancerous tumor returned, and they will be moving back West soon, where most of their families are. Finished the day by sending out a bunch (10) of Jobs list announcements.
Wednesday, Mar 27 Off to Food Bank Soup Kitchen. Worked all a.m. on last minute work with My Wild Irish Rose and I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen. Three of us entertained and had pineapple juice, pasta, veggies (none left for me), salad, & Starbuck’s donated desserts. From there I rushed to the AAC for exercise. Visited and filled out some forms, got some past-prime apples for the horses or the deer. On home to take care of more email and receipt filing (taxes) and similar chores.
Thursday, Mar 28 John off to prune at 7:35 a.m. and I stayed up to work on chores. Now need to get some lunch and get out to go to town for Hearthstone music, meds, and another stop. It turned into a busy chaotic day, just a lot of odd stuff needing done.
Friday, Mar 29 John off at 7:30 a.m. Nancy to AAC at 11:30 for lunch, program, and exercise. Go to grocery for eggs (big sale) and meds. Someone sent me this link to an article about things not to eat.
Think we are in trouble for several of these, as I had a piece of English Muffin bread toast before leaving for lunch before my exercise class at the Senior Center (still hard for me to call it the Adult Activity Center). They announced it would be ham, mashed potatoes, and trimmings. Wow–see below for what all it included. It was free to members. Included an Easter parade, so we were encouraged to wear fancy hats. The only one I have is a brown felt one with a pheasant tail feather. Not very spring like, but got people’s attention!! Ha ha. I wore a bright yellow western shirt with light tan pants, and a nice tan vest. I didn’t win a prize (3 people got prizes and were voted on by the audience). Some were really lovely and quite clever.
Okay, here is the menu, so I have already told John I do not need to eat dinner. Ham, the best scalloped potatoes ever, green salad (with walnuts, tomatoes, several kinds of lettuce and spinach, but enough I could get only the light green stuff, and some garbanzo beans, red beans, green beans, and onions. Then for dessert, two cold pies: butterscotch and chocolate with hard bits of chocolate. It was really scrumptious. We were talking at our table of how many free dinners they have provided for us all year. Maybe they are feeling guilty at the increase to $25 from $20 the past two years. It’s still a heck of a deal. You have to be 50 to join, but there are tons of activities, including the exercise class I’m in and don’t have to pay a physical therapist for (was costing me $25 for 45 minutes of the same things I’m doing at SAIL exercise, free).
On my way home, I went to St. Vincent’s looking for a small pair of tongs to take the hot bread out of our toaster and for other small uses. I had a nice set that have disappeared on the counter ??? someplace. I got them free at a yard sale last year. John also wanted me to look for a (light wt) blue denim jacket. I looked for both, but ended up buying an insulated carrier with a long strap, for a 16.9 ounce (that was the best fit) drink for John to carry along on his trips away from home. My 24 ounce ones won’t fit it in and I already have a carrier. He seems happy with it. It only cost $1.49.
Saturday, Mar 30 Chores today with Nancy inside, John outside–except Nancy went out to tell John about talking to the wife of our friend who got through his eye surgery well (retinal). And, John demonstrated his plans for mixing (from White Heron vineyard) the spent skins, pulp, seeds or pips, and stems of the grape (pomace) into mulch for his blueberry plants. He is expecting the pomace to help keep the soil acidic but his cheap pH meter doesn’t confirm that assumption. So he has something else to investigate. Here’s an interesting link about pomace and other winery waste. Therein it says “pomace is packed with phenols and other antimicrobial compounds which inhibit bacterial decomposition” – and this seems to be contrary to the conversion of raw sulfur to a useful soil acid. Something else to investigate. He also brought buckets of sand (deposited from the Ice Age Floods) for a top dressing of his onion patch. He’s got 3 specialty varieties he is going to try – two are red (one flattish), and the third is big. We’ll see. He says onions need to expand rapidly (‘bulb’, a verb) and a sandy top layer allows them to do this. Later in the year we’ll have some photos of things actually growing. Now the Plum trees look like dead sticks and the onions (tiny sets) look even worse. Also, we’ll show our pomace/sand entries for the mulch. John came in, and got a short rest, a drink, and with my new clipper blade covers (what’s the word, oh, guards). I gave him a much needed haircut. Now he is fixing a mini-pork roast for dinner.
Sunday, Mar 31 We made a chocolate cake to take to an Easter lunch at
Swedberg’s, and picked-up neighbor Louaine on the way. Dinner consisted of roasted pork loin, asparagus, peas, scalloped potatoes, carrots/pickles, blueberry muffins, cake and ice cream. Easter brings up the odd topic of bunnies bringing colorful eggs but how they do this has never been discovered. But never mind that mystery. Have you ever wondered about those beautiful Pysansky (Ukrainian decorated eggs)? The egg is decorated using a wax-resist (batik) method. It is now famous around the world as a colorful Easter egg. The video clip below shows how to make these beautiful Eastern European eggs. Check this out:
It is about 3 minutes long.
Hope your week was great.
Nancy and John
Still on the Naneum Fan