Tuesday, May 29, 2012

4 Months 'til the Wedding - Lets talk China

One of the things that Mary has let me do for her wedding is collect vintage china for the reception.


Remember the scene in The Shining - 


Lloyd: What will you be drinking, sir?
Jack Torrance: Hair of the dog that bit me, Lloyd

.
 I have been like a kid in a candy shop.

When my friend Sue and I went on our annual trip last August to the Bouckville Antique Flea market in New York, we picked up a few dishes here and there....


And when we got home I bought a few more....



Oh, and a couple more...


And several more that I am not going to share right now...
China Town


And now Lance, Mary's fiance, calls this corner "China Town".   And he shakes his head whenever I mention any new exciting purchases....

But I can quit.  

Anytime.  

Really.


Does Betty Ford have a vintage china section????




Sunday, May 20, 2012

Conversations with the Grandkids

Audrey and the babies and I were wandering home from an emergency trip to Fashion Bug on Friday. 
Auds and I were having a deep and in depth conversation about airplane safety.  Specifically about the usage of car seats on aircrafts and how we bought all new car seats for our trip to Germany and how PanAm wouldn't let us use them even tho they WERE rated for airline use.  
I was talking about how in one plane crash an unsecured baby was found in an overhead luggage compartment when I was suddenly interrupted by a voice in the back - "Actually Mimi, that was me", says Grey.  
"Whaaat?" we said in unison.  
"Yes", Grey said, "it was me.  I'm always getting stuck in luggage compartments when we go to Misconsin."  


Ok then.
Would you put this little guy in a luggage rack???

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Watching Austin and Jett Play

Austin and Jett are my boss's two younger sons.  I have been watching them play games for years - baseball, football, basketball, and upon occasion  - Hooky.  


And when Larry gets a chance, he comes along too.


Living so far away from our families, we've missed getting to see our nieces and nephews grow up, so this fills a big gap for us.  
We also figure that you can't have too many people cheering you on from the stands, so we all win out.

I'm fairly good to go for baseball, but football and basketball - and now lacrosse?  I learn something new every year!

Last fall was  big for football.  


Austin made the middle school team and it was decided by all that each game would be fully attended by the home office...i.e. Laura and me.  Except for the game she had to miss when she was in the Netherlands.  My job that night was to let her know what was going on.  By texting.  And man, was it a nasty cold, drizzly night!  To add to the fun, I left my phone in the car, so for the first half, I was texting from Larry's PRE-HISTORIC phone.  But thank God Larry was there.  He'd say tell Laura this!  and then about half way thru my torturous texting he say now tell her this!!! and this and this!!  I was texting words that I had no idea what they meant!

Jett's team made it to the finals and Laura had to miss the next to the last game.  This time, I took Mary with me because Larry was at a horse show.  Mary knows her football, which is good because I was a texting fool that day too!
Jett with the Grizzlies

(And since it was an Important Game, we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch afterwards.)

I think that that was the week that I watched  FIVE of their games.  Me!!  Football!!

And now it is baseball season.   Austin is on two different teams this year, so we are trying to see as many local games as we can.

Austin - practicing with the Richmond Braves
Man was it dusty that day!!!!


Yesterday Larry and I enjoyed a totally new sports experience - we went to Jett's Lacrosse game!!
Jett with the Brigade Lacrosse team


It was so cool!  Jett and his team put on a great show.  AND it was a timed game with only a few time outs.  Just my kind of game.


It is so amazing to see how these guys have grown and matured over the last six years.  We can't wait to see where they go with all this.


And when they get there, we will be happy to say oh yeah, we've been watching them for YEARS!  
We think they're GREAT!!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Finding Raleigh and Sminky

Grey and Neve were upstairs this morning running back and forth and squealing with glee.

As I went upstairs Raleigh, my big gray cat, streaked down the stairs as if his life depended on it.

"What are you guys DOING?"  I asked.

"Finding Raleigh and Sminky!" they answered.

I looked at Sminky, trapped behind a lamp on Larry's desk.  She was not amused.

"See Mimi, Sminky's talking to us!!" Neve said excitedly.


Oh, she was talking alright.

I have personally never heard a cat hiss so loudly.