Easter Weekend
8:40 a.m. - 2005-03-26


Diaryland has been in such a funk lately that I didn't even try to add an entry for awhile. I have been knitting and sewing, but I nicked my finger with the scissors and the teeny tiny little wound went bad on me, so off to the doctor I went. He put me on antibiotics and I am much better already, but he also put this frankensteinian metal contraption on my finger (left hand, luckily) that totally prevents me from hand knitting. This means that I will not be able to finish the cotton sweater for Melissa's graduation, bummer. But I can still sew and will try out the knitting machine today. I can even type, which looks funny when you don't use your left pointer finger, but I can still do it fairly rapidly. Life is full of left turns.

We are still amused by the Amazing Race. My team, the brothers, are such doofuses that we cheer them on and laugh, and amazingly, they came in second this last week. I have no hopes for the prize money, but the extra fun is worth it, I think.

This week there was a talent show at Jellie's school, and she wanted me to go, so I did. It was mercifully shorter than the usual concerts, and Jellie played a piano solo, some classical piece she taught herself by watching the little fingers on the screen of her Casio keyboard. I am amazed at how much nerve she has, because she is usually so quiet. She even walked back up to the stage and took a bow. Some other girl did a dance routine which ticked Jason off because he said it was too suggestive, what with the booty shaking and all. A group of three black girls did another dance routine, and two of them were ordinary 12-year-olds, but one girl was glaringly excellent, real talent up there on the stage. She was a pleasure to watch, and I hope someone gives her lessons and encouragement because, wow. There were two rock bands, and who knows if they were good or not, because they were so painfully, blastingly loud that we all had fingers in our ears. But most important, I was home before 8:00.

The little girl from next door came over this week and asked if she and her friends could pick some flowers. Her friends were the kids from across the street in Edna's old house, and they told me they were from Mexico and San Salvador. I told them my family came from Mexico and they got all excited and wanted to know if I could speak Spanish. Only a little, I told them, since they came to this country about 100 years ago. The little girl was very cute and the two lityle boys were very nice. They smiled at me and said "We are neighbors!" Nice kids.

Our next-door neighbors have two big dogs who have been hurling themselves at the side fence and have pretty much destroyed it. The neighbors try to keep the dogs in their yard, but there have been several sad incidents. Every once in awhile I will hear pounding coming from the side yard, and it is the neighbor nailing ever more "attractive" pieces of board and wire onto both sides of the fence to keep the dogs in. My flower border along there is completely trampled. He has said he will replace the fence, but I wonder.

We broke down and bought me a book on digital cameras for the totally lame, so I am going to study it. He is much too busy to read up on the subject, so I am the designated research person. Keeping up with technology is hard when you would rather be doing something else.

Tomorrow is Easter, which kind of snuck up on me this year. I am supposed to take some rolls, so I will fill up the bread machine to make the dough, but since my left hand is out of commission this weekend, he has offered to shape the rolls for me. In other food news, two new Hawaiian barbecue places opened up in town, and I have tried both. The kahlua pork was praised by my boss, so I tried that, and it is indeed good, like carnitas, served over rice. They have immense menus, who knew Hawaiian cooking was like that? Not me.