Best Laid Plans

Months ago I made the decision to take the week of Memorial Day off from teaching. If I don’t purposely block time out it will get filled with classes. I know that I need some blocks of time at home to actually get somethings done and just see friends at home.

Little did I know when I blocked this week off I would have a friend having an operation. Someone was looking out for me that I was free when needed. I was happy to help out with that rather than doing the things I thought I would be doing this week.

I did get to have some fun this week. Celebrating Christy’s birthday yesterday was top on the list, and getting to play some Mah Jongg. We had dinner out with friends tonight and are going out to lunch tomorrow with some other friends.

Tomorrow night another couple is coming to our house for dinner. So, that is a lot of fun for my week off.

Sadly, I did not go to the attic. It’s an ongoing joke that I will never clean anything out from the attic. Right now I think all the light bulbs are burned out so I can’t even go up in the night and get a box to look through. I will have to save this job for another time I take a week off.

I did work in the garden this morning and watered plants around the property. Things are looking good enough and we are eating arugula as fast as we can.

Russ cleaned out the overflow pantry in the garage for me. I asked what I need to use up and it looks like we should be having tuna melts for a month.

I did actually do one major job I should have done in March, cleaning the outdoor glass topped table. We bought this aluminum table and chairs for our terrace before Carter was born. It has served us well and is still going strong. The only issue is the channel on the table where the glass top fits in gets full of junk from pine needles falling on it, and other natural shmutz growing under the glass.

It is a big job to clean it out, because I have to lift the glass up and prop it a few inches from it’s normal place and scrub the aluminum and the glass. It is one of those jobs I have to do every spring, but sometimes it doesn’t get done until summer. I feel so accomplished that I have it done and can consider my week off successful despite the lack of other progress. The bathroom mirrored wall that goes up to the ceiling needs to be cleaned, but since that has been a few years, what is another few months?

I have too many people patiently waiting to learn Mah Jongg. Who cares if the mirror in my bath room needs to be cleaned up by the ceiling. I can’t take another week off until it’s time to go to Maine. No cleaning then. Hopefully no more people need any operations. If I don’t schedule time off they just can’t happen.

I’ve Seen Her With My Own Eyes

A week of blogs about one friend is a lot, but tonight will close out the week with all the good news people have been asking for.

I made dinner for Jan, Rex, their daughter Kim and grand daughter Morgan who are in from Texas to help out. I texted Jan when I had ll the food made and it took a bit for her to get back to me. She was having her second nap of the day. Since she slept in her rented recliner I felt like she deserved two naps.

I let myself in the front door because thankfully their big dog crocket was with their son David. Jan was up and dressed looking like she does on any regular day. She hugged me without pain before I hugged everyone else.

After a detailed description of how well she was feeling she showed me one of her drains that was clearly working. If I didn’t know she had undergone surgery 27 hours before I never would have guessed.

Due to Jan’s poor reception to regular anesthesia she had nerve blocks, which might still be working at the time of my visit as she said her pain level was a two. Such great news.

We had a really good visit, sitting out in the sun talking with Kim and Rex. I suddenly realized I had been their too long for a food drop off visit. I hope I did not wear Jan out, but she did not appear tired. It was also getting close to dinner time and she was happy I had brought Salmon as it appears many other people had mentioned bringing the same chicken dish. Note to self, don’t bring chicken to a meal train as that is what everyone else is bringing.

I hope Jan continues to feel as good as she does today. She was quite miraculous, but then again she is that way normally.

Prayers Answered

For those of you who have been praying for Jan McCallum, the prayers for this part of her cancer journey have been answered. She went in for surgery this morning and the report was it was successful. She was home before four this afternoon and is reclining in her Mastectomy PJ’s with some kind of inflatable contraption wrapped around her. For someone going for the flat look they have her looking more like Mae West right now.

She needs to rest and hopefully will have enough pain medication to sleep through the night. Rex and her daughter Kim are with her so she is well cared for. True to Jan’s style she has already sent many group texts and her Bubbly of bosom buddies have been cheering the good news.

This is just the start of her journey and she can well report on how things go for herself. She has read the messages you have sent through the blog. I have loved hearing from so many of her far flung friends who I have heard about through the years. Thank you for keeping her in your prayers. You all made a difference. Jan’s lifetime of making friends everywhere she goes shows through. Hooray for a good day for Jan!

Ask Your Higher Being to Watch Over Jan

Not everyone I know is a believer. Believe in what, Dana? Believe that we are connected to each other. Believe in karma. Believe is a higher being. Believe that dogs are angels from heaven. Believe that how we care for the earth is important.

I don’t care if you believe in one God, Many gods or no god at all. Jesus does not have to be your guy. But you can still be a believer. You can believe that there are things outside your control or that you can’t see the whole picture and therefore you have to have faith things will work out the way they are supposed to.

So no matter what you believe, or don’t believe I want to ask that you summons whatever higher power you might think about, even only sporadically, and ask them to watch over Jan McCallum. Then add Jan’s surgeon Maggie DiNome to your request. While you are at it mention Rex, Kim and David, Jan’s husband and children. How about all the nurses and surgical techs, and health aids?

Jan has her surgery tomorrow morning and gets sent home the same day. No one gets better in the hospital, but going home is rough too. I am praying for low pain and high drainage. Good sleep and a quiet home. And good margins and no more cancer.

Doesn’t matter what you believe, doesn’t hurt to ask. Doesn’t matter if you don’t consider yourself worthy of asking, you aren’t asking for yourself. Just in case prayers multiplied works better, let’s do it. You can do it right now, or when you wake up. You can do it twice or ten time. Silently or loudly proclaimed. You can name the being you are asking help from or whisper into the wind. Just ask, but name Jan.

I believe in connection and goodness and light, but I also believe in good doctors. So I have faith that Jan is in good hands, but just in case I’m going to ask the one I believe in to watch over Jan. It’s for selfish reasons. But my higher being is OK with that. That being knows there are so many who love and depend on Jan. I just don’t want there to be any question about who he needs to watch over tomorrow. It’s Jan!

Bye Bye Boobies Party

When Carol heard about Jan’s cancer she thought Jan needed a lunch to gather her friends for moral support. Jan suggested it be called the “Bye Bye Boobies Party.” Carol said she just couldn’t call it that. Helen joined Carol in hosting and a plan was hatched. I brought a watermelon salad made with arugula I grew and mint that grew itself from my garden. Deanna made some mini muffins. Carol, who loves an excuse to bake, made many desserts, including an orange olive oil cake with oranges from her tree in Naples.

Sara gave a heart felt blessing that kept getting interrupted by the timer on the stove telling us the quiche was done. Carol read a list of suggestions for things we could do for Jan, beside signing up for the Meal train Lee created.

The suggestions are:

Go walk Crockett for Jan Since she won’t be able to control him and can’t lift more than five pounds.

Offer to do shopping or to the farmer’s market

Bring lunch

Call for check ins

Chauffeur Jan around

Visit and play games with Jan

It was a wonderful chance to be with friends in support of Jan. Sadly we forgot to take a photo while everyone was there. The most important thing is Jan felt the love. Then she went home and hosted a neighborhood party to let all her new friends in the neighborhood know. They are a tight knit group as they all moved into this new neighborhood at around the same time. I feel certain they too will take care of Jan, and most importantly walk Crockett.

Natural and Artificial?

Russ did some cleaning out of the pantry today. I know, he’s good like that. He found a jar of Maraschino cherries we must have brought home from Maine. Why we brought them home I do not know. I am guessing they are from Maine because they came from Walmart and Maine is the only place we ever shop at Walmart.

Sometimes I like to make a mocktail with gosslings diet ginger beer, lime juice and a cherry with a splash of juice.

Since Russ found this wayward jar he asked me if I wanted a cherry in my watermelon, turmeric, ginger, lime mocktail. I said sure. Live big, it’s a holiday.

Then I got a look at the jar. “Natural and Artificial Flavor.” Nothing about a Maraschino Cherry screams natural. Just look at the color. Now I am certain at one point the cherry was natural, before it was soaked in sugar syrup and zapped with some laser to make it neon red.

My issue is with the need to label Natural and Artificial Flavor above the name. I’m sure it’s a full disclosure thing, but once you add anything artificial doesn’t that cancel out any natural part? For the .79¢ these things cost can you have any illusion they are a high percentage of natural?

In order to label something natural shouldn’t it be 100% natural? A drop of artificial means that it is tainted.

I am not complaining about these cherries being artificial, I bought them expecting them to be. I don’t believe in spending $26 for those all natural cocktail cherries. I would prefer to go without the cherry all together rather than spend $26. I grew up in the sixties and drank plenty of strawberry Quick. What the hell do you think was in that?

Let’s just label these Cherries, artificial with a hint of real cherry. No one who buys them is expecting anything more.

Who’s In Charge?

Every night Shay demands her dinner at 6:00. We don’t eat until almost an hour later, depending on how the cooking is going. Shay’s dinner is a multi-course extravaganza. Kibble base topped with some warmed rotisserie chicken. This is followed by a cheese course and then a second cheese course. Dessert is her half a doggie NSAD which she eats like candy.

It takes her a while to savor all her courses, but as soon as she has deemed herself full she demands that Russ go in HER sun room and play with her and some of her toys.

It does not matter if he is finished with dinner or not, but as soon as she is ready she demands sunroom time. I am not required, or sometimes even allowed to join them.

If I stand in the doorway she gives me the side eye, “This is Daddy and me time.”

If Russ is away she does not annoy me into going to have after dinner play with her. She might just go right up to bed after dinner, obviously despondent that Daddy is not there.

Shay’s training of Russ is impeccable. She has him exactly where she wants him at the exact time. Many a time he has gotten up from his half finished meal to throw a blue dog for her to catch in the sun room. We have tried to play with her in the breakfast room so we could eat together and that is a hard no, as this 22 pound diva drags Russ away. Who’s in charge here? I think the answer is pretty clear.

A Bubbly of Bosom Buddies

While I was at the Durham Bulls game last night with Russ and our friends Michelle and Richard, Jan was back at the hospital getting one last scan to identify something fishy looking from the scan she got earlier in the day.

She texted me last night that the results were not in yet. I felt like she had enough already, but said my nightly prayers and posted my blog.

It was no surprise that the messages of support for Jan were many and far flung. She is well loved by anyone who ever met her and through her years of Heading up Pixels to Pages she traveled the world teaching millions how to make digital scrapbooks.

This morning she got the good news that the shadow that required looking at was nothing critical, just some innocuous thing in her body. This was good news. So it looks like if nothing else changes in the next few days she will have her procedure Thursday.

With that worry behind she turned to coming up with a name for the many friends who are also acting as her spirit animals, because I am just one of many. Jan wanted an original name for this group, like a gaggle of geese gets or a murder of crows, but something happier.

So it was decided the emotional support group will be known as a Bubbly of Bosom Buddies. As one of the most Bubbly people I know, I find this to be the perfect name for Jan’s friends. So I invite you to send any loving wishes, prayers and advice to Jan you want. You can do it through this blog or Facebook as Jan will get all the messages.

Knowing people are wishing her well gives her lots of endorphins, which can’t hurt in these days. As one of the Bubbly I wish I could thank you all personally.

Jan’s Emotional Support Animal

My friend Jan got some bad news a couple of weeks ago. She has given me permission to write about it. 34 years ago as a young mother she got breast cancer. It was caught early and she had all the cutting edge treatments for the time. I met her just a few years after and we became fast friends. She told me then about her cancer survival, but I never thought of her and cancer because she is the most vital person.

Her bad news came with her most recent mammogram. She called me right after she had the squishing, but had not heard from the doctor, saying she knew she had cancer. Of course she was right. She didn’t feel anything and she didn’t feel bad, but she knew. She had to go for another mammogram with contrast and an ultrasound sound and they found some more spots.

She had already made her plan for treatment even before the doctors had one. Their’s matched hers, ‘cause she is smart that way.

She is scheduled for a double mastectomy next Thursday, if all the pre-op tests are OK. Today I took her for her Bone Scan and CT. Jan has deep veins and does not like needles so I was there to tell her stories while they poked around. The tech invited me to come back and distract all the other patients.

Between the CT and the bone scan we walked around the garden at Duke and played some Mah Jongg against each other on our devices. I got to go in the with her for the bone scan where she lay perfectly still on the table for forty minutes while the machine made it’s drawing of her skeleton. I did not talk to her through that since she had to be still and I could not be trusted not to make her laugh. For the record she has a very nice skeleton.

We went to lunch after to celebrate her birthday which was this week. I took her home and she declared I was now her official emotional support animal. A badge I will wear proudly.

It turned out there was one thing on one of her tests they wanted to explore more thoroughly so she had to go to Durham Regional for an other scan this evening, but her husband took her.

We are praying that additional thing is a whatthefuckanoma and is nothing consequential, but the word is still out on that.

I ask that you please pray for Jan. Not actually the way a minister who called her to pray with her did, and said, “Jesus, put your hands on Jan’s breasts.” We got a laugh out of that thinking that there wasn’t much Jesus could do about those breasts that are going.

Jan wants everyone to remember to get your mammograms regularly. This cancer is not related to her previous one 34 years ago. It’s just bad luck, as Jan says. But she has a plan and she is an expert at working a plan.

Lee Wolman is doing the meal train for Jan. She is thrilled when other people cook for her and Rex. As the official emotional Support Animal I will keep up to date on her needs and if you want to help I am certain I can find you a way. Prayers and chocolate, that’s what I think Jan wants most. No hands on her breasts unless you are a medical professional. Maybe Jesus can lay his hands on her doctors.

Bad Smell Investigation

In my burning the candle on two ends week I have had little time to do home drudgery. I had my last beyond beginners class at my house this morning. While it was going on I went to the kitchen to fill my tea and smelled a bad smell. I was unsure if it was coming from the garbage can, or the refrigerator because I smelled it when I was getting the tea out of the fridge, which is next to the garbage.

Since it was the middle of class I could not investigate. After class I threw some things away from the fridge that could be the issue, but then I had to drive to Dunn to teach my night class.

Dunn is a good drive away so it made for a very long day and week as this was my third day in a row doing morning and night classes.

I got home tonight and went to the fridge to fill my glass with ice and water. The smell is still there. I am too tired to start sniffing around. I have an early day taking a friend to the hospital tomorrow for pre-op work up before a big operation.

I am not looking forward to smelling everything inside the fridge. I recently clean it out and there is just not that much in there and nothing obvious is jumping out at me.

Russ checked the freezer to make sure everything in there was still frozen. Thankfully it was. He is not good at sniffing out something bad. I can’t count how many times he has asked me if something was bad because he has no sense of smell.

So this job is going to fall to me. I am not looking forward to tomorrow afternoon. I wish there was some device that could tell me what the offending odor item is that does not involve me smelling everything. I hate bad smells.

Mah Jongg Mirrors Life

As I was teaching experienced players Mah Jongg today I got into a discussion about how players who lost the game react. I stated that so many players are quick to reveal their losing hand to show their “almost” Mah Jongg. Often times players do this before they have even looked at the winners hand to verify it is actually correct.

Never reveal your hand until you have verified the winner. If the player has called Mah Jongg in error than they are called dead, but so are you for having revealed your hand.

The reason people reveal their hand prematurely is that they want to show you how smart they are too, or how close they got, or that you won by a hair, or any other number of reasons. I too am guilty of showing what I was going for, but did not make.

The more I think about this the more I recognize traits in people they might want to change if they only realized they were doing it. How often does someone join a group and immediately want to start talking about themselves. I know I do.

At a recent celebration for a friend I listened to two people dominate the conversation and ignore the person being celebrated. I know these people, who are all friends, did not purposely mean to do that, but they do it all the time.

I have another friend who is skilled at asking specific questions to each person in a group so they have a chance to shine before she ever mentions anything going on with her. It is a most welcome trait, which I want to try an emulate.

As I write a daily blog about any old drivel about me, I usually want to hear about other people because I figure if they were the least bit interested in me they might have already read what was going on with me. This does not mean I am not talking about myself, lord that would take an act of god. But, like revealing your Mah Jongg tiles, it is best to ask about others before making it about you.

My advice in Mah Jongg is you don’t always have to reveal what you are playing. Instead take a moment to celebrate the winner. Let her have her moment in the sun. Soon enough you will have another chance to win.

I am going to work on applying this same advice to all aspects of my life. That does not mean I will stop writing my blog about the randomness of my life. The difference is, if you read it, that is your choice. If I see you in person, then I want to hear about you. You got enough about me.

Criss Crossing the State

Today was a Mah Jongg all-the-time kind of day. I started with a Beyond Beginner class at my house. There is nothing I like more than rolling out of bed and teaching Mah Jongg. I had all people I knew and liked! We played three scenarios on Real Mah Jongg and won all three. It makes everyone so happy when we win everything. Better yet, it proves what I am teaching them works and helps them make the best possible decisions. I love teaching people “How to think.” So much better than teaching people what to think.

In the middle of the day I scheduled future classes. One in Raleigh in November for the Junior league. The other’s are two different weekends at High Hampton’s in Cashiers. Mary Celeste Beall, the owner of Blackberry Farm in Tennessee contacted me last month to talk about Resort Mah Jongg. She recently completed a total renovation of High Hamptons. Two of my Lyford students, Claire and Lynn had told Mary Celeste about learning Mah Jongg at Lyford and she thought it was a good fit for High Hampton’s.

I will be having a Beginner course and a Beyond Beginner on the last weekend in January at High Hamptons. And the last Weekend in April I will do Beginners again and then a special Three day New Card Class with New Card Strategy. As soon as I get more information about those classes I will post it.

If you have never been able to get into one of my classes, or you have a group of friends who want to take a little vacation and learn Mah Jongg three hours a day while enjoying a world class resort this might be up your alley.

After scheduling I drove to Dunn, and taught a group of beginners tonight. Teaching a morning class at home and a night class over an hour way on the same day, three days in a row, is not my best scheduling job.

I think teaching two classes a day at High Hamptons will be far superior. I hope to see you at a mah Jongg table somewhere soon.

All In The Family

When Mah Jongg takes off with one person she might just want all her friends and family to learn. That’s what happened with Emily. She learned and then she gave her new daughter-in-law to be a gift of classes with a bunch of new friends. Next she is giving her mother a class for her friends to learn with her.

Emily loving Mah Jongg has been great for me. I have so enjoyed getting to know her friends and family who have all started learning thanks to Emily.

The funniest part about Emily’s gift is she is not always home when we show up at her house for the lessons. That does not mean Emily is not hosting. She still puts out food and drinks for everyone. Once she was even in Florida and texted that pizza’s were arriving and they were paid for along with the tip. I wish everyone took lessons on how to host Mah Jongg classes from Emily.

Now when the family goes on trips together there will be a large group who can play together. CC, this means you are going to have to learn to beat your grand mother, mother and Aunt. I can’t wait to hear all about it. Nothing is better than a Mah Jongg playing family.

Tomorrow is Shay’s Birthday

Tomorrow Shay will be 13 years old. I can’t believe she has only been the high princess of your house for 13 years. It feels like much longer.

I had a big birthday 13 years ago and my Dad gave me a very nice check for that birthday. I decided to spend half of it on getting Shay. Carter had been begging for a dog. Russ had determined he was not allergic to Shay’s cousin Brady Pottenger so we took a chance on getting one of the puppies in Shay’s littler.

It was a small litter of three. Shay’s breeder Butch decided who get’s which puppy. Carter and I went to visit the puppies when they were about five weeks old. Shay was a quiet girl and Carter thought she wanted a more energetic puppy. Butch chose wisely and we got the dark chocolate bundle of fluff.

She was the perfect choice for us. Carter considered Shay her dog, but Shay quickly choose Russ. It has been a great love affair.

Her coat has lightened, but her posture has remained perfect. She is more devoted to Russ than ever, but is generous enough to love all of us, even if it is not equally.

13 years as the Princess of the house is a good start. We pray for many more happy years with our sweet girl. She was the best present my father did know he was giving me.

The RePaving Pain

Last month two short men walked around the neighborhood and put a no parking sign in each person’s yard all along my street and the surrounding ones. They announced that there could be no parking during daylight weekdays for four weeks due to the repaving of our street.

I have a fairly big driveway, but often have more people to my house than my driveway can hold. So many times friends are parked on the road in front of my house. In fact, my neighbor often looks at her calendar to see if she is missing an event at my house when she sees cars as the cars are more reliable than her memory.

These short men placing the signs did not ask me if I was going to be having people to my house for these whole four weeks. Turns out I am having A beyond beginner class at my house This coming week and I am trying to figure out exactly what to do.

Some of the people know each other and I can ask them to car pool. But I think I am going to have to run a shuttle myself because I can’t fit all the cars in my driveway and there are no close by streets that don’t have the no parking signs.

It is understandable they need to be able to work on the street without cars parked on them, but I wish they could be more precise about where they are going to be working, in case it would be OK to park in front of my house. I have not noticed what all the yard people are doing with their trucks, but this has to be a problem.

I’ll be contacting my class members, but now is when I wish we had those personal aircraft contraptions so people could just fly into my front yard.

I know this is a first world problem and I will be happy to have a freshly repaved street. I just wish they did it when I was in Maine.

Mother’s Day Came Late

My mother came back into town yesterday so today I was finally able to deliver her Mother’s Day gift to her. I know I am lucky to still my mother at my age so celebrating her is important. She recently moved into a new apartment at her retirement community and finally has a porch.

She has outfitted it with four chairs a table to eat at and a side table. The big thing she wanted a porch for was plants. We got her two tomato plants right when she moved in, but she needs more places to put put plants.

With all those tables and chairs there is not much room. She said it is important to have a living thing to take care of, a child, a pet or a plant. We all voted plants as the best choice.

So the mother’s gift idea came from Russ for window boxes that could be hung on her porch railings. She was thrilled when she opened them.

The real gift was my putting them together and securing them to the railings. I took a “before” photo of the boxes without plants. I can’t wait to see what she ends up putting in them. They do make a nice addition to her porch.

Her only complaint is that her porch gets dirty and she needs a way to keep it clean. It’s called a broom. She can get that with her plants. I was not going to get her a broom for Mother’s Day. It might imply the wrong connotation.

Death of Another Appliance

Last month it was the dishwasher. Yesterday it was the microwave. Getting a new dishwasher is a much bigger pain in the neck, than a microwave.

On our anniversary I wrote Russ a cards telling him he was getting a new dishwasher for his gift. When he was heating up my dinner last night he announced that the microwave made a thunk sound and would not turn back on. 20 years with that model seemed like a reasonable lifetime.

While I was teaching Russ researched which microwave would fit perfectly in our space. He texted me the answer and on my way home I stopped at Lowe’s and picked it up. I told Russ this appliance was his Father’s Day present.

Since his birthday is not until October I hope this means no more appliances will bite the dust until at least then. Russ is tired of getting appliances as “gifts.” I am getting tired of going to Lowes. It is much easier if Russ does the research and I am just picking them up.

Good Cheap Entertainment

Day two at CCC teaching beginners and beyond beginners. My beginners are just getting used to me, but many of my beyond beginners have been with me for a while. I truly adore this group of women.

Beyond beginners is the afternoon class and everyone is always just a little punchier in the afternoon. We spent almost an hour talking strategy. As we were wrapping that up and starting the practice rounds, I told one of my regular students that she already knew what we had just discussed. She said, “Yeah, but you are just good cheep entertainment.”

I have decided I need to work that into my marketing somehow, “Yes, I can teach you Mah Jongg, but the bonus is I am just good cheep entertainment.” Who cares if you learn anything, you laughed and had fun and it hardly cost you anything. That’s me.

The Best Party Of The Season

No matter how tired I am, going to the Garden Club year end Picnic is always energizing. Thank goodness the party was at Kathy Eason’s beautiful house since we had to be indoors. I did take a peek outside to see how gorgeous her gardens looked, even if it was pouring rain.

I may have dropped out of almost all the clubs I belong to, but I doubt I will ever have a day when I don’t want to be in Garden club with this group of wonderful friends.

Thanks to the hostesses. Doren’s salmon and Kay’s chicken were divine. As usual all the dishes everyone brought were fabulous, but Mary Eileen’s Tres Leches Cake imported from Dallas this morning took the prize.

Thanks to Stephanie for her excellent year as president. I look forward to a wonderful year next year.

Even Russ had a great time. We stayed longer than we should have, but it was the most fun party of the spring Season. Happy Gardening.

Three Parts to my Day

I awoke to my street being ground down to be resurfaced. It was not as awful as I had anticipated. The machines working outside were not TOO loud. The only problem came when I tried to drive out of my driveway and the many men in many machines acted like it was a big hassle for me to do that. They obviously had never met me and I was not willing to wait fifteen minutes to get out of my driveway.

See, I was on my way to my needlepoint group and it was my birthday celebration at needlepoint. This is the biggest day of the year. My small group of stitchers are the best gift givers on earth. I am anti-gifts, except if they come from this group, then each one is perfectly thoughtful and totally original. A highlight was a needlepoint canvas of my new license plate given to me by my friend Christy. Sadly she was Not there today for me to thank in person, so I am starting my thanking here!

I loved all my sweet presents, especially the ones brought from far off places that involved a flight back here. But no gift is as good as the friend who gives it.

The other wonderful thing is the birthday “cake” made especially for the birthday girl. Today Nancy made mine, a basque cheese cake. I don’t think I can ever eat another kind of cheese cake as this one was award winning!

The third part of my day was New card Class at Greensboro country club. my friend Lesley set up this class and it was a nice group of mostly new players who had never had any exposure to me before. Imagine what that must have been like for them. It was a late class for me so I got home just after ten. I have a quick turn around as I leave for classes in the morning around 7:45 AM. Tomorrow’s another packed day in three parts.

Laid Back Mother’s Day

As I predicted we stayed mostly at home on this Mother’s Day, which was great with me. We did go to church, as I was certain that all the graduations were not going to effect church attendance.

We came home to 20 beautiful tulips which Carter had delivered secretly. They were a sweet surprise from the person who made me a mother. Since I couldn’t be with my girl, this was a nice substitute.

From that point on Russ encouraged me to do whatever I wanted. Not that I needed encouragement. So I needlepointed all day. I have a big project as a gift I am working on so I want to get it done fast. It was nice to stitch all day without guilt.

Thanks Mother’s Day for coming at the right time.

Early Happy Mother’s Day to My Mom

You would think with my mother now living in Durham I might get to see her on Mother’s Day, but no, she’s gone to Shady Side for the weekend. So in your honor Mom, I am wishing you a happy Mother’s Day a day early, just so you will have more hours to hopefully see this. (Technology is not her strong suit so I might have to take a photo of this post and send it to her.)

One of my earliest memories of my mother is of her on our tiny, terrace in Dayton, Ohio. She had a chaise Lounge chair, which was really just one of those aluminum folding chairs with the colored straps that wove together to be the seat and back. I was about three and had a tiny tricycle that I could ride in a circle around her while she got sun in her lounge chair. I feel like I made thousands of circles because I don’t think the “terrace” was much bigger than her chair.

Another early memory is of my mother putting me on her bed in our house in New Canaan with pillows behind me and a coloring book and crayons. She said I was such a good girl because I would color for a long time so she could take a bath and not bother her.

I was the only child until I was three and a half so I learned early on to be good for my mother. It wasn’t until others came along did I learn I had a choice not to be good.

She said I was well behaved when I was little so now I would like to apologize for anything awful I might have said when I was a teenager. I don’t remember what that might have been and I hope she doesn’t either, but I’m sorry nonetheless.

I can’t remember that we ever did anything for my Mom on Mother’s Day when we were kids. At church, I recall some other women had orchid corsages on Mother’s Day, but never my mother. I blame this all on my father. Since we already brought her coffee in the morning on regular days I doubt there was anything special on Mother’s Day. Sorry for being a lame kid about thanking you for being our mother.

Janet probably did nice things for you long after I was grown and gone, but that was maybe as good as it got.

I am lucky to have you around and so close now. So I hope you know how much I love you and wish you a happy day everyday.

A Birthday Lunch, A Party and Some Time at Needlepoint

I purposely try and not work on Fridays. This way I can do all the fun things I want to do and have no guilt. Today was a perfect example of a play Friday.

I slept late, like 7:30, I went to lunch with my friend Shelayne for my birthday. She even beat me there. It is hard to find a time when she and I are both free at the same time, especially since she has just had her eleventh grand child and she is younger than me! I so appreciate her always celebrating my birthday with me.

From there I went to needlepoint. I finally finished my exchange ornaments and had to pick up some thread for a wedding gift I am stitching. Since I am creating this gift from scratch I have to test different colors and stitches to make sure it is all perfect. I often have an idea in my minds eye and then stumble upon another way to get there. It’s one of my favorite creative outlets.

Lots of friends were at needlepoint today so I stayed a while and visited, even though I could just stitch as I was still in the exploratory stage. Nonetheless it is always good to be with needlepoint Nancy and the gang.

Tonight Russ and I had a 70’s theme party to go to. We didn’t try to hard to dress for the theme. Russ didn’t complain too much about having a party to go to. It helped that the Beischers sat next to Russ.

We have officially crossed into the old group as everyone at our table kept asking each other if we knew the names of the young people. We didn’t. It didn’t matter. I thought it was just impressive we were at a party on Friday night.

That’s enough of parties for us for the weekend. It’s graduation weekend as well as Mother’s Day. There will be no leaving the house for us. Well, we can work in the yard and sit on the terrace, but as far as venturing out, it is best not to.

I look forward to the day they don’t put all the graduations on the same weekend. It’s kind of like getting peace in the Middle East. No one wants to move, but everyone would be happier if all the parents for all the schools weren’t coming to the same area for the same weekend. Glad to get to stay home.

Nature is Way Better than Technology

It was back to work this week after taking off my Birthday/Anniversary week. I had a great few days in Morehead and Pine Knoll Shores, but am always happy to come home to Russ and Shay.

I also was excited to come home and see my garden. It had rained a lot this week and has been warm. The early days in the spring garden are miraculous to me. You can practically watch the plants grow. I have tomatoes, many kinds of peppers, cucumbers, Japanese eggplant, green beans, zucchini, lettuce, kale, Arugula, basil, chives, mint, and parsley.

My Cherry tomato plant has grown taller than her cage and has two little arms of cherry tomatoes on her. It will still be some weeks before we can pick and eat her produce, but watching it grow is most of the fun.

Just consider how amazing the green beans are. I pushed a few little beans in a hill of dirt four weeks ago. Now I have plants. In another six weeks I will have beans growing. Come on, nature is way cooler than technology.

If you have little ones, teach them to grow something they can eat. It will have a life long effect on them for the better.

My Kind Of Day

Oh the luxury of only teaching one class today. I feel decadent. I slept in since my class didn’t start until 1:00. It was such a treat.

Kate and I went to Four Corners to have brunch since we decided to make it a two meal day. Going out to breakfast is what makes this feel like vacation. I can’t remember the last time I went out for breakfast. We also went to the good cooking store. I didn’t buy anything since I already have every cooking thing, but Kate did. I’m not sure if this means she is going to cook.

Afterward we came back to Kate’s and played Siamese Mah Jongg. Kate beat me twice.

We played almost too long and rushed to get to class. All the students were already there 15 minutes early. They are taking class very seriously.

After class Kate’s dear friend and neighbor Lyn came by and went to dinner with us. We drove down to Emerald Isle. It was a good little drive. The funniest part to me was little village of Tudor houses we passed. The least beach looking places. More like some German town.

Kate was directing me where to drive and the last instructions were to turn into a parking lot of an office building. I drove down to almost the end of parking lot and asked where to go next. She said, “Oh, park right here.” The restaurant was on the third floor of an office building with no sign indicating it was there. It was fantastic. It was great to see Lyn who had not been here last year.

I’m now snuggled into Kate’s wonderful guest room while a big storm with lightening and thunder goes on outside. I love a good storm to end a great day.

Morehead/Atlantic Beach/Pine Knoll Shores Hurrah

Beach Mah Jongg started a month early this year. This is the first time I have come in May, of course I already was down here in February this year so May is not that early.

I had the first class at a new club for me, CCCC. So many clubs, so many C’s. It is a great group of mostly new women to me, but some returning favorites who have followed me around. Nothing makes me happier than having students who turn into friends because they take so many classes from me.

I got to this new club an hour early today because I was doing new card class as the first session and that involves technology. Usually I can set up for that class in ten minutes if it is at a place I have been before. When I go new places I never know what I will encounter. Good thing I was there an hour early because the tech was not working and it took the club manager every bit of an hour, with multiple calls to their AV vendor, two different HDMI Cords, One maintenance man and a 12 foot ladder to get it working. Amazingly he got it on exactly at 1:00, the start of the class!

The only thing that was slightly disappointing is the room was very bright and it washed the colors out on my power point. Nevertheless people learned.

My second class was a new card class at a MCCC. I told you it was a lot of C’s. Their tech worked perfectly, but the sun setting in the ballroom windows did require some people to have to put on their sun glasses inside. Thank goodness we are at the beach and everyone has their sunglasses.

I am so thankful that my friend Kate let me come and crash with her this trip. I am such a vagabond staying with whatever friend I can talk into letting me sleep in their guest room. Kate is a superior hostess and I am always noticing the things she does for guests, that I think I should do for my guests, but somehow have not. My favorite thing I noticed tonight is the two bedside clocks that have plugs for any kind of cords right on the front. There is no need to crawl around to figure out where I can plug in my chargers.

The last treat is that tomorrow I am only teaching one class so Kate and I get to go out in the morning and have a little fun before class. It’s wonderful down here in May. It’s empty and beautiful.

Congratulations to Carter

In Carter’s job there is a certification she could get. Her boss generously gave Carter the time and funding to take a class and test for the certification. The test was today. She had to go to a testing center to take the test. She picked the earliest time to take the three and half hour test knowing she would be best first thing in the morning.

The best part about standardized testing at these centers is she found out the results immediately. She finished in an hour and forty-five minutes with a ten minute break. In the class the instructor gave her the advice not to go back over her answers so she didn’t and submitted her answers. She said the response was fast, and underwhelming. You Passed.

So to make up for that lack of celebration I write this blog to say Yay for Carter. She is now SHRM certified.

On the home front Russ had a great experience with the installer of our new dishwasher. My plumber suggested getting a Maytag/whirlpool/kitchen aid, so I got the Kitchen Aid at Lowe’s. It came exactly when predicted and the installer was excellent. That chapter is closed.

On my front I want to thank my friend Nikki who organized the new Card class in Greenville today. It was great to see Lee and Martha and have lunch with Barbara and Nikki and the girls.

I’m off to the beach tomorrow. Seems that summer comes earlier and earlier.

Poor Russ

Well our anniversary and my birthday weekend are over. Actually two weekends, because we started celebrating last weekend when Carter was here. I know that our anniversary is also a special day for Russ, but somehow with it being back- to-back with my birthday he gets all the work.

This year since our dishwasher died I wrote on his card that he is getting a new dishwasher for our anniversary. Seems like a good gift considering I got hoses and spray wands for the garden. Since he got the dishwasher he is the one who has to stay home tomorrow for the installation. Tonight I showed him everything I know about plumbing in our house in case he needs to know anything for tomorrow.

For the record I would have taken the installation, but I have away class scheduled and since I have dealt with the last five dishwasher related visits I think it’s time for Russ to enjoy that experience.

One more week and Russ can get the last holiday that is for me out of the way for the year, Mother’s Day. It’s never a giant deal since it follows so closely on the other Dana related days. I would prefer to delay Mother’s Day until the fall when I really could use some pampering or a gift, but no one has agreed to that yet.

If it were up to me I would move all my events to months that are less busy. Not exactly sure when, but not May. May and December are the crazy months. Now that we don’t have a child in school May is not quite as bad as it used to be, but then everyone else is busy. It does not help to live in a city of Universities because graduations take over the month and no one can go anywhere.

Thankfully for Russ I am happy to stay home on Mother’s Day and work in the garden. This year it will just be nice to have a dishwasher other than Russ. Poor thing.

New Chairs, The Kentucky Derby and Liking 98% of the People I Met

Russ volunteered to go help me with taking my Mom to buy new outdoor furniture and tomato plants for her new porch. It was a successful morning getting everything she was looking for and setting it up. Now she can have three friends for lunch on her porch. Not that she is going to cook lunch, but she can have three friends for wine.

The highlight of our day was going to Michelle and Richard’s Derby Day party. Any excuse for Michelle to serve mint juleps and Richard to cook for a week. The saddest part of the party was the fact that it rained. I looked out at Michelle’s gardens and could tell they were in tip top shape, but not everyone noticed.

We talked to many interesting people. Russ really hit it off with an Economics Professor working in AI. I thought his wife was fun. There were old friends and grown children to catch up with. Eventually we watched the race, but I had little skin in the game and lost interest.

During that period after the race, before the winner was declared, did I have to endure a person I found to be someone I might want to stab if stuck in an elevator together for more than fifteen minutes. I won’t go into why, but you just know when you meet someone who makes your skin crawl.

It doesn’t happen often. I like most people. If you are one of the two percent I don’t like, I know it quickly. You may not ever know it.

Thanks for All The Birthday Wishes

For anyone who has gotten off of Facebook I am sure your birthday’s are just a little more quiet. I spent all day reading sweet messages from friends old and new wishing me a happy birthday. Thanks for the thinking of me on this day. I share it with so many friends, Gussy, Sarah, Beth, Vickie, Trisha, and Rose. I hope everyone born on May third had a great day today.

Birthdays no longer are just a one day celebration. I had a great lunch yesterday with Mary Lloyd and Christy, despite the waiter who narrated everything and not in an order you could necessarily follow. Many lunches to fill the rest of the month. Russ found me the funniest card of an Otter in a sea of Macarons singing.

Flowers from my mother and sista J. Plants, Sweet posts and calls from Carter. Calls and cards from so many friends and even a Dolly Parton Birthday song from my Friends Sam and Nancey with Dolly singing my name. How?

It was a beautiful day and I am thankful to made it another year doing things I love to do with people I adore. These days are not guaranteed so I cherish each one and all of you who made it so special for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Happy Anniversary

I was one day shy of turning 31 when I married Russ Lange. That was 32 years ago today. So I have been married longer than I have not been married.

Thank goodness for his sticktooittiveness. I might have over looked the tallest guy in the room due to his shyness. But he kept at me, even when I was much too busy with other things. He is clearly the best thing to ever happen to me along with the daughter we got.

I am glad he didn’t listen to his mother and married me. I am glad my father didn’t scare him away. They say when you marry you get their family along with them. You can overcome a family if you love each other enough.

I am looking forward to our next 32 years. To think of all the places we have been and all the places we will go. It’s a good ride. Love you Russ Lange.

Mom’s Moved In

My Mom moved into a new apartment in her retirement community. She wanted something with a porch and a den. It was a lot to move up to a bigger place, but I am certain she is in
a place that makes her very happy.

She has a cute porch and a place for plants. She says the best part is she can watch the ambulances come and go. I am so thankful that she had great movers who packed all her stuff up and unpacked it too as well as three guys who moved all the furniture.

Tomorrow the packers will come back and help hang all her art. I can’t wait to see the final look. With all these people helping there was not much for me to do, but I was there to instruct where to place furniture.

There are still porch chairs to purchase on Saturday and then hopefully she will be fully settled in her last apartment. She has a whole room just for art now that she has a den for her TV. I hope lots of painting will be painted in this new apartment. Way more paintings than ambulances seen.

Mom’s Moved In

My Mom moved into a new apartment in her retirement community. She wanted something with a porch and a den. It was a lot to move up to a bigger place, but I am certain she is in

a place that makes her very happy.

She has a cute porch and a place for plants. She says the best part is she can watch the ambulances come and go. I am so thankful that she had great movers who packed all her stuff up and unpacked it too as well as three guys who moved all the furniture.

Tomorrow the packers will come back and help hang all her art. I can’t wait to see the final look. With all these people helping there was not much for me to do, but I was there to instruct where to place furniture.

There are still porch chairs to purchase on Saturday and then hopefully she will be fully settled in her last apartment. She has a whole room just for art now that she has a den for her TV. I hope lots of painting will be painted in this new apartment. Way more paintings than ambulances seen.

C & C’s Last Visit Day

The power’s on, but the girls are gone. Russ left this morning while the power was still out. It came back on around 6AM. Duke power under promised and over delivered since they said the power would be off until 8 in the morning. Carter, Claire and I were happy to have power, but were sad it was their final day.

Such a treat to have them visit for four whole days. Visits are short and far between when you have an adult child. I so appreciate that they took off two days from work and spent it with us. We played lots of Mah Jongg and talked long hours in the sunroom.

C&C went to visit my Mom as she is moving apartments. It was good for Carter to spend some time with her Grandmother. I get to go tomorrow for the final move of all her furniture. Thank goodness for movers. It can’t take too long to move a two bed room apartment to a new one one floor below and down the hall.

Shay has had a ball with all these adoring people around. Carter asked if Shay could ride in the car with her for the last fleeting moments together. Now both Shay and I are home alone in an empty house. I am not sure who is missing our girl more.

Ruffin’ It

It was three in the afternoon. Carter, Claire and I just arrived at Lowe’s to buy some exciting soaker hoses. Russ texted Carter, “Power’s out.” We drove home and saw fire engines on Hope Valley rd. near Hathaway. There was smoke and trees down. We thought that was the culprit. As we drove down Dover rd. We saw two trouble trucks turning on to Eton? Was that the trouble. Duke power reported a car had hit a pole. They said the power would be back on at 8pm. A few hours later they revised it to 8 AM TOMORROW.

Carter and Claire had planned on cooking us dinner as an early birthday celebration. Thankfully our gas stove was all they needed. So they made a delicious dinner, eaten by fake candle light. (Thank goodness I bought a couple of these cordless lamps last year.)

After dinner they surprised me with a gorgeous basket of succulents and a good game of mah Jongg by candlelight. Russ boiled water in the kettle to wash the dishes.

Now I am being lulled to sleep by the sounds of neighbor’s generators. We are going to have to break down and get one, I just can’t find a good place to install it so it won’t be droning in our bedrooms.

At least we had lots of old fashioned fun without electricity. Some of our emergency lanterns have given up so it’s time to buy more of these cordless lamps. I just have to remember to recharge them before I put them away.

Hope you have power.

Best Day Ever

Having Carter and Claire visit is nothing but fun! We spent the morning gardening and playing Mah Jongg, which is such a treat for me to have not only the help in the garden (Russ also helps and he is still spreading mulch), but to get to play Mah Jongg with real life people I love is the best.

All those things were great, but they were just time fillers until we could go to see Megan Ketch’s final Playmakers performance of “The Game.” Russ and I had seen opening night, which was amazing, but today’s show was surprisingly even better. I am not sure how that was possible.

We laughed hysterically and Megan could tell we were there. Carter also sobbed, almost uncontrollably, not just about the truths in the play, but also in watching her beloved Megan doing what she was born to do and with such success.

Oh the reunion of Carter and Megan is so tender and Megan was so excited to meet Claire. Megan’s parents Susan and Jim were there to make it a big celebration and Max, Megan’s husband brought their sweet son Leon so it was one big love fest.

The celebration continued with a dinner at Vin Rouge, which never disappoints. What a fun day for us all. I am so lucky to have them home for two more days. Oh Happy Day.

Fun Saturday Start to a Great Visit

I have been waiting all winter for Carter and Claire to come for a visit. We lucked into this beautiful weekend for it to happen. Before they landed Russ and I got a visit from our friends Iain and Angela bearing gifts of plants and eggs. Iain had grown too many plants for his garden from the seeds he started in January. We thankfully will get the opportunity to try and raise them into productive plants. I hope not to let them down.

After Iain and Angela left we ran to the airport to pick up the girls. We have a jammed packed weekend we have had planned for months. The big activity today was to go to the Durham Bulls with my mother. We had talked about it ages ago. This morning I texted her that we would pick her up at 5:45.

I didn’t hear from her all day. I texted again and had Carter Text her and call her. No response. We drove up to Croasdaile and her car was there. Russ went In to her apartment. Her phone was there with all our messages, but she was no where to be found. He went to the dining room and found her with a group of ladies and a glass a of wine. She didn’t bother to introduce him to her friends and said she certainly couldn’t come to the game. I think she is having a good time living there.

Off to the game we went without her. It was Star Wars night, which is fun, but would have been better if the bulls had played better. In the sixth inning something happened I have never seen before. The umpire gathered all the officials on the field for some conference in the middle of the inning, in the middle of one Durham Batter’s up at plate. Then the Scranton manager came out and they all talked to the pitcher. The play continued with no explanation and as soon as Scranton was off the field the Umpire took the pitcher aside for a long talking to. As there is no commentary at the live game we had no idea what the whole thing was about.

It seems like there are a few things today we need to get straightened out. Tomorrow is another big day with Carter and Claire here. Can’t wait. We’ll see if there will be a Grandmother sighting.

Gluten Is Back On The Table

Ten months ago my doctor said I should go gluten free to “see if my villi stand up better.” I asked, “How will we know?” And she said tests will show.

So I went home and immediately adopted a gluten free diet. I consulted gluten free expert friends, (thanks, Jeanne and Kristi) and I studied recipes on the internet.

Now I am not a Celiac and I don’t have IBS or other like issues, so giving up gluten did nothing to make me feel better. I didn’t feel bad to start, but perhaps my villi were lying down.

I was like a judge, no gluten, no soy sauce, no breathing near a bakery. I tried lots of gluten free products. Most were horrible. Most were also overly processed and sugar made up where wheat once was.

I got tested, my gluten number didn’t change. How could that be? We did that for months. I never once had any knowing gluten and I questioned everyone who cooked for me.

Today I saw the doctor. “You can go back to eating gluten. Not eating it did nothing good for you and perhaps the gluten free substitutes were worse for you.”

Oh Lord! That was a long and horrible experiment. I am so glad it is over. If eating gluten had made me feel bad and giving it had made me feel better I would have not trouble giving it up because there was a benefit. But not feeling bad to start and giving it up meant more processed food which made me feel worse and was a losing proposition. Thank god it is over.

I went to a Mah Jongg party tonight where I was the guest speaker. They had pizza and I had my first slice of real pizza in ten months. It was divine. The best part is I feel fine. I feel better than fine. I just ate one small piece of pizza and a little salad. The perfect meal.

I am not going to go gluten crazy, but boy it will be nice to have something real.

Dichotomy

I had a round table meeting at the Food Bank today. We gathered some thought leaders to learn about where things stand and the state of Food Insecurity in our third of North Carolina. It was striking how bad the food deserts are in poor and rural areas. But poor is not limited to rural. Wake country where there is a high concentration of wealth has more poor people than many counties down east have people.

High cost of living hits people in the food wallet because it is the area of their budget which is variable. So more people are in need than ever, especially the very young and very old.

One thing that is frustrating is the fact that the farm bill has not been passed in DC. The farm bill historically has been a non-partisan issue. But the lack of getting anything done in congress along with the people who just say no to everything, controlling a portion of one party, means they are not doing their jobs and passing bills.

We will never end hunger, but it would be nice to have politicians in DC like Wake County Commission Matt Calabria who was at the meeting today trying to help the issue. The local people know what the needs are, but the DC people are too far from their constituents.

After the meeting, I went and taught a private lesson before I went to teach a class. I made a stop at Cameron Village before my class. I was a sitting in my car watching a man in a new Rolls Royce SUV trying to park. He pulled into a spot and got out and walked around the behemoth of a vehicle to make sure that if the 20 year old Toyota he parked next to could not hit his car with their door. He was not satisfied and got back in the Rolls and maneuvered it over a few more inches. He got out and checked again. He moved it a third time.

I sat in my car watching this whole thing. I thought, if you have such a valuable car that you can’t park it in public what’s the point? All that work, just to park. I hoped that guy spent as much time thinking about important issues and maybe helping the world, even just a little.

The world needs a lot of help.

Mah Jongg, What Else

Thanks to the wonderful people at Benvenue Country club, we had a great new card class in Rocky Mount today. Not only did we have a wonderful class of students, but we had a fun Asian Themed dinner following the class. Thanks to Catherine Combs for bringing me to Benvenue originally and introducing me to the kind people there.

There is nothing I love more than seeing the progress that people are making in their game play. It makes it so much more fun to become a more proficient player.

I get a lot of inquires from single people who want to learn to play, but are not part of a group, or a club. I try and find ways I can plug them in. My biggest challenge is having enough time for all the people who want to learn.

A small business in Cary is hosting Beginner classes at their store. It’s called A Home for entertaining. I will be teaching there in the evenings of June 11-13. If you have been trying to get into a class, this is a good opportunity. Here is the link to sign up home for Entertaining Mah Jongg.

Tomorrow I’m back at Meredith College teaching their alumnae the second of their three beginner classes. Gotta love a girls school offering Mah Jongg as a Alumnae activity. I told them yesterday I felt right at home since I went to a girls prep school. I did think it would be OK if we all wore our Lanz Night gowns to class.

Wishing all you players lots of jokers.

The Payment was Out of Charachter

It’s already been a busy week. Today I gardened this morning, went to lunch with my friend Jeanne and taught a lovely group of Meredith Alumnae Mah Jongg. I have had little time to catch up on the news, but I have been thinking about the Trump trial.i heard yesterday that Trump might have even claimed that he is innocent because he didn’t even sleep with Stormy Daniel’s.

If that is possibly part of his defense I have the full proof prosecutorial rebuttal to that farce. The DA needs to put on the witness stand a large group of people whom Trump did not pay for services rendered. Allegedly there are numerous contractors who did work for Trump over the years, who despite contracts and services rendered when the bills came due he refused to pay what he owed. His response was these small contractors could sue him to get what he owed them.

That being well known Business as usual for the guy makes you wonder why he would pay Stormy Daniel’s and Karen’s McDougal a cent if he really didn’t do what they claim he did. Now Cohen was the one who made the cruel payments to them and Trump then reimbursed Cohen and called those payments something else, thus the falsifying the records. But given his history of not paying what he owes, it would be normal business as usual not to repay Cohen, if he didn’t really do the acts Cohen was paying to cover up.

The fact that Trump paid is the proof of his guilt, because he is a man who tried to never pay. Generosity is not an adjective ever uttered in the same breath with him.

A Seesaw of a Day

My day started in the sweetest possible way. Megan Ketch came over for breakfast and brought her darling son Leon. Megan was Carter’s Nanny when Carter was just a little older than Leon. Megan started the summer before her Freshman year at UNC and stayed with us for as long as she was in Chapel Hill. Carter was Megan’s first baby, so it was so wonderful to see her finally with her own baby. Megan said her car drove itself here as she practically lived with us for years.

Leon, not quite two, is a joy. He could not have been more curious, and tender hearted, but also brilliant as he picked up a coaster that had the number four on it and he said, “four.” I should not be surprised as Megan is the best teacher and sweetest Mama.

We laughed all about her years with us and how sad I was when she moved to NYC, which is where she was meant to be. It was the best way to start the day.

No sooner had Megan and Leon pulled out of the driveway, honking joyous beeps of good bye, when my dishwasher repairman pulled in. We have been waiting almost four weeks for the part, the same one replaced last year, to come in. This repairman we seemed unsure of himself as water sprayed all over the kitchen. I turned the water off for him, which he should have done first.

Three hours later he announced that there were other things wrong with the dishwasher. After my interrogation of him it was clear he had first not diagnosed the whole problem and second had broken some other things while trying to fix the original problem. I didn’t even have to get out the rubber hose for him to come clean and admit his mistakes.

To make a long story short, or a boring one go away, I got my money back for the deposit on the parts and labor after talking to the supervisor, and I bought a new dishwasher. I also called my friendly plumber who came right over to fix what the idiot had broken under the sink.

At least another two weeks of Russ washing the dishes. It wasn’t just the fact that this guy screwed everything up it was also that I missed a birthday celebration for my friend Michelle. The lost time makes me more mad than anything else.

It was certainly a day of two ends of the happiness spectrum. Hopefully tomorrow will be more even keel.

Just Can’t Beat the Rain

This time of year I live by the weather predictions. I plan all things around when “They” say it is going to rain. “They” are not always right. When I go away, with the prediction of rain, I hope it happens as I want the rain for my garden and new plantings. When I get home and ask Russ if it actually rained at our house I am often disappointed.

This weekend I had a lot of planting to do. I did more than half of it Saturday. I had to water what I just planted, but knew there was a good chance for rain today. I am fine with it raining after I have watered new plantings as long as it’s not a deluge.

Since I was too exhausted to plant everything, I planned on planting the rest today. Russ and I went to bed very early so we could work before the rain came. Russ said “They” predicted it would start raining at 10. All good I thought.

I woke up at five. It was still dark so I lay back down for another forty-five minutes. My normal Sunday routine is wake up, play all my NYT games and share my scores with my posse. Laze around watching news and CBS Sunday morning then go to church.

Not this morning. I was out in the secret garden, a tiny square behind the dining room and breakfast room. I started digging only to discover an ancient watering system, long ago abandoned. This made digging problematic, but I eventually chopped up most of the hoses.

I got 85% of the plants in when the rain started at 7:50! Two hours early! I still had flowers to pot in the patio containers along with the final three plants in the secret garden. Mulch still needed to be repositioned.

I should have powered through everything yesterday, despite the heat and exhaustion. I knew rain was coming. Quite frankly I have been praying for rain since it did not rain Tuesday or Friday as “They” predicted.

I cleaned myself up and had my normal Sunday morning as it was barley past the normal time I would wake up on a Sunday.

After church I cleaned the house and basically hung around waiting to see if “Their” all day rain prediction would be wrong so I could go back out and finish. For once “They” got it right. So my terrace and secret gardens lay waiting for me to finish and tomorrow is my busiest day. At least my vegetable garden is happy with the gentle all-day rain. “They” say it won’t rain Tuesday, let’s see if I can finish.

Dirt Day 1

I have hardly been home to do much gardening. Last weekend I planted a few veggies and zinnia seeds. I wished for more rain than we got. Today I went to Gunters Greenhouse and got a bunch of annuals for the front door pots and the terrace garden. My wonderful plumbers left me nine tomato plants they didn’t need so I planted seven of them along with some basil and marigolds, along with a second round of green beans and arugula.

I did my front door pots. They don’t look like much right now. They need a few weeks of growing to fill out. I was too tired to do the terrace pots and the secret garden. That will have to wait until tomorrow. The peonies are lush and full of flower balls waiting to explode, I think by next week.

Russ and I took note of which hoses have given way and which nozzles need to be replaced, so guess what I am getting for my birthday. At least they don’t have a plug.

There is still a bunch of mulch to be spread, slowly but surely we should get it all done. I need to finish that project so I can order new gravel for the driveway. Another excellent present, perhaps for our anniversary which is the day before my birthday.

Oh I can only dream of what exciting thing I can get for Mother’s Day. Thank goodness we don’t need anymore garden tools.

Who Knew Your Email Could Be Full

I have had one email dress that I have used for thirty years. And it’s not an AOL one. I diligently delete emails daily that are unimportant. I thought I was doing the right thing.

Turns out I was not. Deleting them on my phone did not really delete them.

I got a DM from a woman I don’t know today saying she had been trying to email me, but was getting messages that my email was full! I had never heard of this. I knew voice Mail can be full as I am always texting my friend to delete her voice mails because I can’t leave her one.

So I got on my head of IT this morning and sure enough I had used some crazy amount of storage, supposed to be a lifetimes amount of storage. So the IT head cleaned up a few things so now I am only 94% full. More cleaning to be done, but only on my computer, not my other devices where I do all my actual work.

I so appreciate the communication from this stranger, who really wanted to get into Mah Jongg class and was not stopped by my poor IT management.

If you need to get in touch with me you can use danalange@me.com as another email. You can text me at 919-452-4243. You can DM Me through Facebook or instagram.

I am sorry if it is hard to find me. I also get a lot of questions about where I will be teaching classes. Most of my classes are private, some at private clubs and some at private homes or at organizations that hire me for classes. That means that I can’t add random people to these classes.

I will be having a Beyond Beginner Class in Durham that I control. It is May 21-23 from 9am- Noon. If you are interested in that contact me. There is a Beginner class at Home for Entertaining in Cary June 11-13 6pm-9. Home for Entertaining will have a sign up for that class on their website I think starting Sunday.

I will be at the Dunes Club, and the off site location for the Coral Bay club in June and July. If you are members of those clubs watch their newsletters. I am sorry I can’t help non-members get in those classes. Only members can possibly bring guests. It all depends on the Club’s rules.

I will be back at CCC September 17-19, for both Beginners and Beyond Beginners.

To the woman who wrote me disappointed that she went to a club in another state thinking she was coming to see me, I hope you learned the game just the same. Learning the rules is the easy part. If you really want to get to be a great player come take Beyond Beginner classes where you learn how to think about the game strategically. Those are my favorite classes to teach and by far the most fun classes to take.

Thank goodness Mah Jongg in real life is an analog operation as I clearly don’t have the IT chops to manage it digitally. Wishing you all empty e-mail accounts and all the jokers.

Used Up My Word Allotment

Well It’s happened. I finally am talked out. Three days in Kinston, so many friends, and relatives of friends, and a long car ride home talking to Carter and I think I can’t talk any more.

I still have my voice, but it’s more gravely than usual.

Had my Kinston New card class first thing this morning. Thanks to all the K-town girls for helping me get everything set up and settled. People paid rapt attention and I talked and talked and talked. I did learn that my laser pointer does not work when pointing at a TV screen. So I thankfully I had my trusty telescoping pointer.

After new card class I had lunch with Ruth E., her Cousin Ashley who is a favorite and Ruth E’s sweet mom. It was a pleasure to spend time talking with Mrs. Perry who is as sweet and kind as I imagined the mother of Ruth E. to be.

They all helped me take new card class stuff to the car and get beginner stuff out of the car as I set up for my last Beginner class. Because we had odd numbers I played two hands at two different tables at the same time so all the students could play with four people at a table. I tried my best to let the students win, which did not always work.

They helped me carry everything back to the car and I was off for home. With my drive ahead of me I called Carter to catch up on her week. It made the drive go faster. I picked an exhausted Shay up at Mary’s and came home to an empty house, because Russ is judging a Case competition. I watered my garden and found eight potted seedlings left for me by my sweet plumbers.

So now I have just sat in the quiet house, no TV, No Music, no sound and just went through the mail for the last hour. I am so enjoying not hearing the sound of my own voice. Shay is passed out asleep on the bed and I think maybe I should not talk tomorrow and just see what it’s like to be silent. I know people are going to be sad they missed being with a silent me. I probably used my word allotment for the week already. Don’t call me. I can’t talk.

Southern Hospitality

One of my main reasons for this Kinston week was so I could come to my friend Debbie’s Farkle fund raiser for the PEO, an organization of women who raise money for scholarships for females. I had never heard of Farkle, but Debbie told me months ago that it was an easy dice game that I could certainly master.

Mastering was not the goal, but going and spending time with friends for a good cause was. We had no idea that even though we were seated together, the top half of the table moved up while the bottom half stayed at the original table for the next round.

I enjoyed all of it. Met a lot of sweet people. Learned a new game and made lots of points. Nothing award winning, but very acceptable. Debbie had made sure there were gluten free lunches for me and Kristi and brought them to us personally. It was great to spend time with Debbie’s husband Paul who fought Jane Brothers to be my host at my next visit.

After lunch I had to go teach Mah Jongg to my sweet group of beginners. They are all excelling as they are getting special attention and are a smart group.

Tonight I was taking Jane and Warren out to dinner. That’s my deal when I go to stay with someone. I think most people already have all the stuff they need, so a consumable is my preferred gift. A great dinner is the perfect consumable.

I told Jane and Warren to pick any place they wanted to go. They told me we were going to the Starlight in Greenville. It was a little bit of a drive, but a new place to me.

Jane and Warren love the Chef and his wife and the larger family who have owned this restaurant since 2000. I asked Warren if he sold them vegetables and he said, “Yes, especially a lot of broccolini this spring.”

We met Toby the chef, and his sweet wife. We had a fabulous server and the most delicious food. It was a perfect night. When we finished everything I asked the server for the bill. He said, “Didn’t Toby talk to you? It’s on the house.”

I looked at Jane and Warren and they both had big shit eating grins on their faces. “You tricked me!”

The Chef was trading a dinner for broccolini with Warren and he and Jane were not letting me get the bill since there wasn’t one. I could not believe they pulled this off. My only consolation is I was able to tip the waiter. Now how am I going to surprise Jane and Warren for their over the top hospitality. I can’t do it next visit because Jane already promised Paul I was staying with him and Debbie. This is going to have to be a long con.

Back to My Home I Didn’t Know Was My Home

It’s a good day when I get to come to Kinston. There is something about my friends in this town that calls me home here again and again. This trip was planned not around my Mah Jongg teaching, but around my friend Debbie’s fund raiser for one of the many community groups she volunteers for.

She asked me months ago if I would like to come and we planned some Mah Jongg classes around coming to her event. So today I came on into town and taught some beginners before going to Becky’s house for drinks and to catch up with my gang.

Becky, Jane, Kristi, MaryAnn, Ann, Ann, Debbie,Molly and eventually Jo somehow all were free to have a lot of fellowship together. We went to dinner together, the exception of Jane, Ann and Ann who all had previous commitments. It’s hard to explain how in just a few years of coming here to share Mah Jongg with this town, they have grown to be such an important group of friends to me. They always roll out the red carpet and I love catching up with what each of them is doing.

After dinner I returned to my country home at Jane and Warren’s house. The party lights in the yard were on and Lucky greeted me as I pulled in the driveway. Jane was still at her church meeting, but Warren was home. He bought my old Land Cruiser and he was making sure the sunroof was in tip top shape. It makes my heart happy to know it is in a loving home.

Jane made it home with enough time for us to have a good visit. Like the kind of visits you have with beloved family. These are my people. I’m not sure they knew what they were getting when they first invited me, but I hope they don’t get tired of me. I love being back home again.

The Answers on the Social Media are Not Always Right

I can’t read anymore Mah Jongg posts on Facebook In April. With the new card there are always going to be lots of questions and people looking for clarifications. It’s not the questioners that bother me, but the answerers.

So many people consider themselves, experts, and whose to say how one qualifies as an expert. Lots of people also teach Mah Jongg. Most in small groups once in a while and some like me, as a full time job. There is no certification for teachers, and lord knows there should be one.

I say this based on hearing from my students how learning from others went, after they came to my class. I feel like there should be a few basic requirements for teachers. First, don’t drink before or during class. Second, have some kind of plan about how you are going to teach. Third, if you teach with a partner, don’t constantly disagree with each other about material parts of the game. I hear the nightmare stories that my students have told me that make me embarrassed for “teachers.”

I personally am no longer going to read the online questions because if I do I can’t help, but read the online answers. Oh Lord. The wrong things people write. Some times I understand what they might be getting act, but their imprecise use of language messes up the answer.

All games involve strategy and it amazes me what people think about Mah Jongg strategy. One person wrote that the FIRST thing she teaches her students is that Mah Jongg is a defensive game. Really, the First Thing?

The idea that this is a defensive game could not be more wrong. Yes, we all need to understand defense, but you can’t take a totally defensive position from the start and ever have a chance to win. You just can’t keep what you think other people want and have space to save what you need to win. If your attitude is defensive all the time the best you can do is tie, but mostly you are guaranteeing you are losing. Of course if you don’t see a way towards winning yourself you should turn to defensive play, but you just can’t start that way.

The more I read what people write the more I can see their personalities in the way they play and the way they teach. Glass half empty people take a much greater defensive tact. “I don’t care if I lose, I just don’t want you to win.”

What a terrible point of view to live by. I teach completely the opposite and I think that is why people love playing the game. I want to be happy when someone else wins, and still try and win myself.

This is a game. Teaching it and learning it need to be nothing but fun. I did a zoom class last week and it was not fun at all. There was no way to joke around with my students. They probably learned the material, but golly, what a dull way to do it.

If you are looking to learn anything, make sure you like the teacher and they know how to convey the information in a way that is enjoyable. No glass half empty teachers for a game. And stop reading the answers on the internet unless you know the source is reputable like the women who run Mah Jongg Websites and pod casts and teach big classes. There are plenty of actual experts, Dara, Debbie, Donna, Johni, Fern, Molly are a few trusted names.

My students know how to reach me to get their questions answered. Don’t trust social media to get the right answer.

My Masters Addiction

I don’t play golf. I don’t regularly watch golf. I don’t closely follow golf. That is all true, except when it comes to the Masters. I am addicted to the Masters. I love the Masters. I drink out of my Masters cup all the time. I don’t know why I love the Masters, but I do.

Last year I was lucky enough to go with my friend Judy. It was a highlight of my year. I felt like I became an expert on hole four where we watched most of the day on Thursday, which meant I got to see all the players.

I loved watching today. I was thrilled that Scottie Scheffler continued to stay on the top of the leader board. I fell for him two years ago and it’s nice to see he is just as nice a guy, even after being number one.

I also was totally impressed with the young Swede Ludwig Áberg. To come in second at the age of 24 in his first major was most amazing. He looked like he was having a lot of fun. I guess that winning over two million dollars for second is fun.

I am not sure I will ever have another opportunity to go to the Masters, but I certainly will continue to be addicted to watching it on TV. I am not going to take up golf. It takes too much time. I am also not going to start watching other tournaments. But there is nothing like the Masters. It’s easy to be addicted to the best of something.