Lunch with Gammy

The year is almost over and in part to celebrate all the good things that have happened and in part just for fun, today Grandma took Thomas and I out for lunch. The plan was originally to go to Fenton and eat at the world famous French Laundry but as we were just about to exit the 69 and slide onto the I23 on ramp I noticed bumper to bumper traffic stretching on as far as all our eyes could see. So, change in plan, and a quick detour across lumpy frozen dirt while we swerved back onto the 69. Eventually we got turned around in the right direction and headed back downtown Flint. Since neither Thomas nor Grandma had ever eaten at 501 Bar and Grill (apparently it is an official Martini Bar) I suggested we head there. It was the right choice: not too crowded, and the food was delicious--and so were the desserts!

Rumor has it that Thomas is heading back to The Windy City any minute (I did warn him that Flint would seem mighty dull after a few months in Chicago). It was great to have someone with his..."energy level" (his propensity for dramatic room entrances has not lessened) but I will not miss doing all the extra laundry he spawns.

Present time!

Frederick's Xmas diorama

Frederick brought a huge pile of giant parcels back from school today. We were allowed to open one of them early because it's a Christmas display. And here it is:

Emily and Frederick made it together.  It's amazing!

And again (but sunny)

For Mar in the snow

The Windy City Earns Its Nickname

Thomas finished his semester yesterday and is heading home today...very, very slowly. Chicago truly is The Windy City today and Thomas's train left the station over an hour past the scheduled time. I can check into Amtrak.com to see his train's progress. Right now, it is plodding along at 27 mph. There he is, the blue arrow, just outside Gary, Indiana:Still, since the train station is less than a mile from our house, it beats driving out there to get him. I just hope he had the sense he wasn't born with the wear his damn winter coat. Martha, Thomas's faithful feline, dutifully waits for him, though staying awake is proving difficult: (Ooh--now we're talking; I just checked again and now he's flying along at 87 mph!)

Christmas Tree--while it lasts

And here is the indoor tree. The star on top was selected by Frederick last year, and I am pleased to see it survived storage (most light strings to not--it's one of those things, like air mattresses springing holes even though no one is using them while they rest undisturbed in a basement or garage loft). Frederick and I put up the lights right after getting it, but then let it "rest" for a day while the branches relaxed and fell into position. (I suspect it had been in cold storage since mid-July or so as not only was it very light--I could easily tuck it under one arm and carry it about--but it hasn't any sap running or pine smell. It's not long for this world, I fear.) The next day we set about selecting ornaments and putting up garlands of beads and tinsel. We picked out only ornaments that cannot break--I could see Sylvester eyeing the activities with a hunter's keen appreciation--but I had no idea just how naughty a cat could be. (I want to make clear that he was not this naughty last year. Of course, he was also about 15 pounds lighter and had only just moved into our house and perhaps didn't want to make a bad impression. Now that's he's comfortably settled in, he's as bad as he wants to be.) Every ornament I hung up was violently pulled to the ground. I tried to shoo him off and, with pupils the size of saucers, he savaged my arm. He was a possessed by a demon, clearly. We fought for hours before he finally exhausted himself and fell asleep in his chair in the sun room. (And then got quite cranky when I woke him up when going outside to put the ducks to bed for the night.)

The next morning (yesterday) a dozen or so ornaments were again on the floor, having been battered about all night I am sure. This morning, all were intact. Clearly, the thrill is gone--or so he wants us to believe.

...all right, that's a bit TOO much like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Decorating the (outside) tree

I thought that it might be nice to decorate the pine tree that has always grown outside the sitting room window, as it is a nice shape and healthier than the tree we normally bring indoors.  Somehow I must have had an image of it from many years ago, because when I actually looked at it close up, I remembered that, oh yes, it reaches up level with Frederick's bedroom window.  Undaunted, we bought some cheap super-large plastic ornaments and 3 strings of LED lights (which turned out to be pitifully insufficient) and here I am teetering on a ladder trying to decorate it.

And then he was gone...

Martha will have to cling to this memory for 3 weeks at least until her boy comes back from college, because Jami just saw him off on the train to Chicago this morning, just after 7. 

It was funny having him back in the house: we remembered just how much and how often he requires feeding, and one car or other would disappear at odd intervals, and then when you started it, the stereo would suddenly blare out at ear-splitting levels. 

Molesworth II pla "Fairy Bells"

Thomas is home for Thanksgiving!  No doubt he will complain that he can play MUCH better than this, but this is slice-of-life cinema verité:

(In case some readers don't get the reference.)

Not actually a mushroom cloud

I was driving on the freeway the other day (on my way to pick up frozen rice pizza crusts, if you must know) and saw this off somewhere in Flint:

This being 2016 I called Jami to look up what it was and it was this.  Think of all the lead and asbestos a fire in low-income housing would send into the air...

Ill winds

Or at least strong ones. Scenes of devastation the other day in Grand Blanc Commons:

Two Year Anniversary

It was two years ago today that this (no longer) little guy entered our life.I'm sure he regards making us happy a full time job.

Kiln repairs

A few years ago Emily's mom was clearing out excess stuff and found a kiln (used by her mother to glaze porcelain dishes) and I snapped it up. Simon gets very resentful if I use the kiln in the summer months, but with the cold weather that has set in (it's snowing right now!) I am free to fire up as much clay as I can stand. So I was very excited to run the kiln only to find that it never reached the required temperature, and the kiln ware looked very bad indeed. The culprit was a broken element (there are four). Since Emily is out of grandmas and new kilns costs over $2000, I was very dispirited--until Simon suggested I get online to look for a replacement kiln element. Since the kiln is certainly 40 years old at least, I was skeptical, but (unbelievably) I found a company that sells all sorts of kiln parts. The element I needed cost only $32. It arrived a few days ago and, with much trepidation, I set to work on it earlier today while Simon and Frederick went for a walk in Grand Blanc Commons. Here is the new element, right out of the bag: Step 1 is to remove the control panel. Eew--rather dusty, no?Step 2 was to disconnect the element from the control panel (held in place by a ceramic tube and a screw holding it to the switch plate. Step 3 was to pull the element out of the kiln bricks--CAUTIOUSLY!!!--I was warned, as (apparently) the kiln bricks are fragile. I quickly realized that the bricks were likely to break because the work was fiddly and frustrating as hell. It didn't help that the element crumbled to bits every time I got a good grip on it. Here is the kiln, with new element in place, all vacuumed out and ready to go. Now I just have to attach the new coil ends to the switch plate.......reattach the control panel cover......load up the kiln (with the monstrously hideous pots that weren't fired properly)....and Bob's your uncle!I have started up the kiln, but it takes about 5 hours to get up to the required temps (about 2000F--hard to believe I'm responsible--gulp--for wiring it up!), then it takes about 12 hours to cool down enough before I can open the kiln to see if it worked. Here's hoping.

Frederick and the cows

Last week was cow week for Frederick. On Monday, he and Emily went to a nearby farm (Cook's farm) to visit cows, but he was too scared to get close. So, Emily took him back every day (usually timed for feeding time because calves get bottle fed and helpers are always appreciated) and it wasn't long before Frederick decided that cows are the best! Best of all, cows make milk which can be turned into ice cream--and Cooks farm conveniently sells all sorts of ice cream products. Frederick brought home vanilla and strawberry and I can attest that both are delicious.