I can’t believe that it’s been a week since I last posted! You can tell that family takes priority to blogging in this household. So did gardening.
Thursday, the day of his birthday, I cooked a favorite meal for Dear Husband. We spent the evening at home because we planned to go out with the kids on Sunday.
My youngest sister, Frankie, of Just My Opinion, (I know…she’s been absent during marching band season), drove up from her home in Indiana on Friday, and we spent a pleasant evening together.
Saturday, my two older sisters joined us, and we created the picture boards for Elegante Mother’s 90th birthday party. Frankie is working on an archival scrapbook that is simply amazing. We plan to have the entire scrapbook duplicated for each of the siblings, so we have the pictures and memories.
Pizza for dinner….no one had the umpf to cook.
Thank goodness for Daylight Savings! We had an extra hour of sleep Saturday night, and I needed it!
Sunday morning I was awake about 6:30. Frankie had been up for more than an hour, working on the layouts for the memory book. I cleaned the kitchen, put things in their proper places, ironed two table clothes, did the dishes, did laundry, and ousted Dear Husband from the bed so I could make it.
At 11:30, I was encouraging a general exodus to the cars. My step-daughter was planning to drop off food for the party as soon as we left the house. I was afraid that we would run into her coming up the drive if we didn’t hurry, so I looked like a traffic cop, waiving people toward the cars.
We had a lovely meal at Dear Husband’s current favorite Italian place. We had the chance to catch up on the kid’s lives, and visit with our granddaughter. Frankie and Elegante Mother talked about journaling to save our memories for those who follow. I so wish we had started EM journaling sooner!
Frankie left for home after lunch, and one of Dear Husband’s sons had another obligation. The rest of us returned to our house. The guys settled in to watch the Bears game. When the doorbell rang, we sent DH to answer it. Bogie….I think he WAS surprised. Co-workers, friends, and family all showed up. Although I had said “No gifts, please,” when we invited them, almost everyone brought a gift. Most of the gifts from his friends at work were gag gifts, but they were just right. There were enough people to fill the kitchen and living room, and a few spilled over to the “green room” just off the kitchen. I’m delighted that so many were able to make it.
My step-daughter did a spectacular job with “nibbles” for our guests. We have two pies and a cake, and two

Last Friday, on my way to exercise, I saw one last heron in the redesigned conservation area at the end of my road.
I thought that all the herons and egrets had made the trek home, but here was one last tall, dark, elegant bird, looking for his breakfast.
I love my cardinals, and the junkos, and chickadees, and blue jays, but I’ll be waiting for the return of the herons and egrets.

Tomorrow, October 26, is Dear Husband’s birthday. He isn’t much for celebrating birthdays, but that doesn’t matter. His daughter is orchestrating a big surprise for him. He thinks she’s going to take him to play Bingo. She asked him how he’d like to celebrate, and he quietly mentioned Bingo and shuffleboard. Personally, I think she SHOULD take him to play Bingo. Maybe next time he’d give a more reasonable answer when someone asks him what he wants to do! *G*
Sunday, the kids and I, Elegante Mother and Frankie, will take him to dinner at noon, at a favorite Italian place. What he doesn’t know is that extended family and friends have been invited to the house for coffee and dessert when we return from dinner. I have to see to beverages, plates and napkins, and cleaning the house. My step-daughter is taking care of everything else. It was a deal I couldn’t turn down.
Dare I tell you which birthday this is? Nah…..I’ll be a good wife. Go ask Frankie, (my sister). Maybe she’ll tell you! *G*

Elegante Mother and I go to an exercise class three days a week. We started this tradition about seven years ago, when I wanted to help her get ready for a trip to the Chelsea Garden Show in England. I was concerned that she needed to be prepared for a long day on her feet, so off we went to exercise.
Three years ago we had a change of instructors. We didn’t quite know what to expect. This new leader had a back round in Asian exercise forms, and we were exposed to Tai Chi for the first time. I have to tell you that our Dragon Lady has grown on us, and I hate to miss a class with her. She’s become our exercise “guru.”
Unfortunately, our guru’s mother is seriously ill, and she needed to find a substitute for several weeks. She had all but one day covered, and she asked if I would do the class for her. My response was….”If it’s a case of no class, or my leading the class, I’ll do it.”
Dragon Lady gave me an outline of the music and which exercises she does to them, and a copy of the music. I’ve had it for two weeks, easily. Each day, I listened to some of the music, and started counting the beats to see how many repetitions of the exercises we would need to do. I think this is where I have to tell you about my bad habit of leaving things until the last moment…
Last night I finished planning the number of repeats for the exercises, and then started to write the movements on poster-board, so that I would have a “cheat sheet.” I finally finished close to midnight. It would have been MUCH wiser to get this done earlier so that I could have had a good night’s sleep, but I am a confirmed procrastinator, I’m afraid.
Dear Husband woke me at 5:00 this morning. I showered and dressed, read for a bit, answered some e-mail and had a banana before it was time to leave for class. I took extra music for those who come early to walk, and got the room set up.
I was beginning to get a little nervous, and the term “flop sweat” flashed through my brain. Right on time, I welcomed the class and told them I hoped they would all help to make the day a success. And it was!
Despite a few miss-cues, we got through the session. The class chortled when I stood still at one point and asked…”What the heck does THAT mean?” in reference to a description of an exercise on the cheat sheet. I was astonished at how fast the time passed. I decided that we would use the Tai Chi balls rather than poles for the arm exercises, and inadvertently saved myself from the class pranksters. They had rolls of duct tape and masking tape, and were planning on taping me to the poles and stuffing me in a closet. Neener, neener, neener!
The class was very supportive. They worked hard, and had kind things to say when we had finished. I have GREAT respect for Dragon Lady, who can do this, facing the class, cuing us to travel left when SHE is actually traveling right. And, she can do it without notes! My hat’s off to her. I’ll be very glad when she is able to return to us.
I plan to maintain my “Apprentice Guru” status, but I hope that it will be a long time before I do this again.

Well…at least on my part. The girls may be a little disgruntled.
My nieces’s marching band came in third at State! Of course, they were hoping for second, or even better…first. They won third last year too, and expected to keep moving up the ladder. In fact, they did. Their score this year was even better than last.
It’s really tough to convince teenagers that there is honor in placing anywhere other than first. I wish they could have seen the entire field of ten bands compete. They would have been so amazed at the competition, and they might have felt better about their standing.
We left the western suburbs of Chicago shortly after 5:00 a.m. The trip to Indianapolis took us less than five hours. With an early stop for lunch outside of town, and crossing a time zone, we were at the ticket booth of the RCA Dome by noon their time. The class C competition started at 1:05.
I was blown away by the performances! It’s astonishing what 70 to 138 kids can accomplish in three and a half months. The uniforms were incredible, the music was thrilling. The pageantry of the flags and rifle work stirs your soul. Each performance was spectacular, and I feel blessed to have been able to see all of them, not just my nieces.
What a memory these kids will have.

We think that we have hit that time when our egrets and herons take off for their winter homes. We’ve been watching for the past week, and have seen just one heron. An armada of geese have taken over the pond where we see the egrets in the morning, so we think the egrets have taken wing.
We’re always sad to see them go, but my driving should improve, now that I’m not rubbernecking to see those lovely birds!

Saturday morning at O:dark:thirty, we will be heading for Indianapolis to watch our nieces compete in the Indiana State Music Association high school marching band competition. Dear Husband, Elegante Mother and I will roll out early to make the trip. It’s down to crunch time.
I know that kids will look at you squirrelly if you tell them that it’s an honor to be selected to go to state competition. They feel that you are preparing them for a bad score, but that’s really NOT the case. Only ten bands in Class C will have the chance to go to Indianapolis tomorrow to compete in the Marching Band competition. The kids in those ten bands, and the parents, and the band directors and the staff worked their BUTTS off to get there. It’s not an insignificant achievement.
Trying to convince the kids that going is reward enough is made more difficult because their band earned sixth place three years ago, fifth place two years ago and third last year. Every single one of those kids are wondering: “Will we be second this year? First??”
There’s no way to predict what will happen. At Regionals they were one of five bands chosen to go to State despite the fact that their sound board died just as the band took the field. They must have done something right to overcome the difficulties. With attitude like that, anything could happen. I don’t think this band is going to be overconfident. They’ve watched their competition, and they know it’s going to be tough.
When the competition is over, you’ll be likely to see one band scored higher than the others, and then several will be clumped together, with scores that are hundredths of a point apart. Part of the band director’s job is to help the kids understand the honor of going. He has to validate the effort they put into the past four months regardless of their score.
He won’t have to make any effort on my part. I’m blown away by what these kids have done, and wish I could have been there for every performance. All I can say is:
CONGRATULATIONS, KIDS! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

You could say that I’m fixated on the price of gas, and you’d be right. Today, I filled the tank and paid $2.039 per gallon. We’re SO close to less than two buck gas. Will we make it? Somehow, I doubt it.
The oddest thing about this is that what I paid today was LESS than what they were charging in central Illinois. I suspect the cost is artificially increased there because of all the farm trucks being used right now.
It’s always something!
I blogged earlier about the obscene amount the CEO of Exelon, the parent company of ComEd, is paid ($27,000,000 a YEAR!). I have to agree with Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, of Illinois. He says that the company, which is seeking to raise the cost of electricity in Northern Illinois by 22 to 55%, needs to consider tightening their belt first.
I realize that rates for electricity have been frozen since 1997, but an increase of 22% the day of deregulation is purely greed. “We can, therefore, we will” take you all to the cleaners, and there’s not a darned thing you can do about it.
Conservatively, I’d guess that we pay approximately $1,500 a year for electricity. ComEd is proposing to increase that by $330 to $825 for the year.
I have the sense that we are recreating the golden age of the Robber Barons.
For more information on this situation, visit this site.

I know….you don’t belive me.
We were in North Central Indiana, getting ready to start the drive home. I stopped to fill the tank before we hit the road, and there it was……$1.969 per gallon! YES!!
It seems that a lot of places closer to where I live are starting to edge back up again. I’ll refill at $2.059 tomorrow, and I suspect that will be the lowest it will get in this area.