Three Beautiful Things 09-29-2025: Packing for Pendleton, Debbie Rocks the Bone-In Chicken Thighs, We Get Forms Signed and Notarized

1. Rapid blogging today on Tuesday, sitting in my Wildhorse Resort room, looking back on Monday. For starters, these days packing for a trip is a multi-hour job requiring many lists and my ongoing awareness of how easily things slip my mind. I think by the time I went to bed, I had packed everything I wanted and needed: clothes, medicines, chargers, gadgets, protective gear, the works. 

2. Debbie discovered we didn't have the boneless chicken she'd hoped we had and she went to work innovatively creating a chicken stroganoff dinner that was among the most delicious preparations of chicken I've ever tasted. 

3. Debbie and I had our signatures notarized on a form Debbie needed to fill out for her Idaho state pension. We went to the insurance office, found out that this office no longer is in charge of our State Farm policies. Our stuff got transferred to an agent in CdA in the aftermath of our previous agent's retirement. Once I'm done playing around in Pendleton and return home, Debbie and I will, most likely,  work to have our business returned to the Kellogg office.   

Three Beautiful Things 09-28-2025: Family Reunion, Family Dinner I, Family Dinner II

1. Debbie and I hosted Family Dinner tonight and so, for the first time in over three months, Christy, Carol, Paul, Debbie, and I were all together again. We had a lively evening with a lot of catching up to do. Christy had news about local developments in Kellogg, including our neighborhood. Carol and Paul filled us in on their stimulating and fun week in Baltimore. Debbie had news and updates following her three months away in New York and Virginia. I mostly wished public figures would present clearly premised, evidenced, and developed arguments instead of just slinging conclusions at each other and at us! 

2.  With Debbie returning home on Saturday, I figured it would be a good idea to cook our Family Dinner main dish on Friday. A while back, a friend of Christy's gave her some ground elk meat and Christy gave Debbie and me one of those packages -- it was about a pound and a half of meat. 

I decided to make elk meat chili. 

When I took the chili out of the fridge today, Debbie and I agreed I ought to stretch it a bit, so I added a can of black beans to it, so now it was a three bean chili (pinto, kidney, and black beans). I also added a half a can of fire roasted tomatoes. 

It worked. 

It was a mild chili as far as heat, but other spices like cumin and paprika made it flavorful.

Everyone commented that they enjoyed it, making me very happy, especially because I'd never cooked elk chili before. 

3. Everyone's contributions to our dinner worked perfectly. I mixed everyone (except me) a cheapo, but adequate margarita. Carol and Paul brought tortilla chips with salsa and Carol made a very tasty bean dip. Debbie made an excellent cabbage, carrot, and celery salad. Christy contributed superb corn bread and baked a very delicious Apple Cider Doughnut cake for our dessert. 

Good solid food. Lively conversation. Great vibes. 

A most enjoyable dinner together.  

Three Beautiful Things 09-27-2025: Debbie Lands in Spokane, Reunion with Gibbs and with Radio, Back to The Lounge

 1. I did a little bit of touchup on my housecleaning efforts and then vaulted into the Camry and blasted over to the Spokane airport. On my way, I stopped at Pilgrim's and bought some bakery items, thinking Debbie might welcome a snack after traveling for over eight hours (Newark to Chicago to Spokane). 

I was right. 

Debbie plopped herself into the front seat and enjoyed an almond croissant as we made our way out to I-90 and cruised back to Kellogg. 

Time flew between Spokane and Kellogg. We had a lot to talk about and we succeeded in getting each other caught about life in Kellogg and life back east. I enjoyed how easily we fell right back into our conversational rhythms and we definitely laid a solid foundation for more conversation to come. 

2. Back in Kellogg, Debbie had a joyous reunion with Gibbs and was happy to walk into our newly spiffed up and sparkling (was it really sparkling? Ha!) house. 

Mid-afternoon, we did two things together we hadn't done since before the transplant surgery. 

First, we went to Radio Brewing together and enjoyed lunch and continued our catching up conversations.

3. Then, again, for the first time since May 2024, we went to The Lounge together. I'd been cautious about going to The Lounge for over a year after the surgery and the times I did visit, I was by myself. 

It was a blast. 

We plunked ourselves at the bar. Cas and Debbie resumed their witty repartee after a three month's absence and I piped in on occasion with a quip or two. 

Debbie was tired, though, having been up since just past midnight our time to get ready for her 6 a.m. (EST) flight out of Newark. 

So, Debbie had one cocktail, I enjoyed one Bud Zero, and we ended our scintillating return to The Lounge, and eagerly look forward to many visits together to come. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-26-2025: New Cleaning Supplies Work, Cleaning the Oven, Preparing The Lounge

1. I did my best to give the main floor of our house a semi-thorough cleaning in anticipation of the return of Debbie. I realized on Tuesday that I wasn't happy with our cleaning supplies. I didn't purchase any gadgets or little machines to help with my efforts. I just bought microfiber towels (rags to me), Mr. Clean erasers, copper scrubbers, and other everyday items.

Having them arrive Thursday evening and putting them to use today buoyed my spirits, helped me do a better job, and left me hopeful that I'm not a total bust when it comes to housecleaning, an assessment I've had of myself for about a hundred years. 

2. Cleaning the oven and having that job turn out decently made me especially happy. Earlier, I looked at how badly it needed cleaning and didn't think I had it in me to do it. But, I rallied. I scrubbed, found ways to clean the hard (for an old man like me) to reach places, and used a combination of cleaning implements to complete the job -- not perfectly, I know that, but adequately, and I've spent much of my life living with and learning to be satisfied with adequate. 

3. I took a break from cleaning house and met up with Ed at The Lounge. 

(The following paragraph is meant to be funny.) 

When I told Cas I'd been cleaning house today, yesterday, and Tuesday (not on Winning Wednesday!), he told me he knew exactly what I meant. He told me how, in preparation for Debbie's return to The Lounge, he, too, had been scrubbing down The Lounge all week, wanting to make it not only perfectly clean, but sparkling for when Debbie comes back. Cas is very nervous about whether he's done a good enough job and when I volunteered to check out his work, he told me in no uncertain terms that only one person could make that determination and he knew she would be in The Lounge on Saturday, upon her return, to make her inspection. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-25-2025: Leaving the Living Room, A Final Farewell to the Sube, Cleaning Supplies Arrive

1. When Debbie and I are both home in Kellogg, I have my bottles of medicine, pill box, laptop(s), blood pressure monitor, blood pressure record sheets, books I'm reading, mail I need to tend to, and other things that occupy my day to day life in the bedroom on a card table by my bed. 

Earlier this summer, once we realized that Debbie was going to have an extended stay in New York, I migrated out to the living room where I began working puzzles, setting my fantasy baseball lineups, reading, writing, listening to music, paying bills, sorting mail, and doing other day to day things. 

Today, I undertook the task of decamping from the living room and rearranging things in the bedroom in preparation to returning to my former routine. 

2. I also got out our file box and organized a pile of papers in the living room I hadn't tended to.

Once in the file box, I realized I could dispose of all the records I kept over the years of work done on and tires purchased for the Sube. 

I received word a couple weeks ago that someone somewhere purchased the Subaru (for under 500 dollars -- that's all I know) and so today I let go of over two decades of records. 

In the process, I indulged myself in some nostalgia.

I let those records transport me back to Eugene and the years of terrific service we enjoyed at Euroasian.

In Greenbelt, I took the Sube to a local Sunoco gas station and not only came to trust the guys who worked there, I enjoyed what seemed to me a rare thing, having close to full automobile repair and maintenance service at a filling station. At one point, the Sube's clutch needed to be replaced, a job too big for the Sunoco guys, but adjacent to the gas station was an auto repair shop and the Sunoco guys sent me over there and their work, too, was great. 

Over the last eight years, Silver Valley Tires maintained the Sube, replaced brakes and tires, and cared for the Sube's suspension. For larger jobs, I went to a Subaru shop in North Hayden, but it closed and recommended its customers go to Silverlake Automotive and I was very happy with their service. 

So I took time and remembered the people who worked at these places, how intelligent and thorough they were in explaining things to me, and how they kept the Sube running well for over 200,000 miles and for twenty-one years. 

I might have closed the book, but not my affection, on the Sube today. 

3. I've been slowly working to get the house looking pretty good for Debbie's return. 

I realized, however, that I wasn't satisfied with the cleaning supplies we had on hand. 

So I ordered sponges, SOS pads, a 12 pack of microfiber cloths, copper coated scrubbers, and magic erasers along with detergent pods for the laundry and dishwasher. 

The delivery of these goods came around dinner time and I'm going to wait until Friday morning to put them in action. I'll clean the bathroom, continue to clean the kitchen, including some of the walls, do some interior cleaning of the Camry, and tend to whatever else comes up, hoping that these products will help me do a satisfactory job. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-24-2025: I Quietly Paid the Fee at City Hall, Winning Wednesday!, Mozart and North Idaho College

1. On my way out of town late this morning, I stopped in at City Hall. I had used the City Hall drop box to pay my latest bill and somehow that check either just disappeared or got off its leash and ran away into the wilds of South Kellogg. 

I went in to write another check and the very helpful employee I was working with broke the news to me that I'd have to pay a three dollar and eighty cent late payment fee. 

Suddenly, in an instant, a flurry of thoughts and images went through my mind.

On the one hand, it didn't seem right that I should be charged a late fee when I dropped off the check plenty early and somehow it got lost at the City Hall. 

For a second, I wondered whether I should I contest that charge.

At the same time I asked myself this question, on the movie screen in my mind, a rapid series of images flashed before my inner eye of angry citizens getting up in the faces of all kinds of public servants, say during the pandemic and in the aftermath of the 2020 election and in any number of other situations. I thought of stories I've heard of angry customers yelling at workers in restaurants and bakeries and coffee shops. I didn't want to add to any of that. 

Then I thought about three dollars and eighty cents. 

Will paying this fee keep me from being well fed? Will I be unable to put fuel in the car? Will I still have a roof over my head?

And then I asked myself whether this City of Kellogg employee, who is just doing her job, doing all she can to help me, and just following the rules, needs me to hassle her? I admit, it never crossed my mind to fire the tried and true local phrase THAT'S BULLSHIT! at her, but I also decided against objecting and simply wrote out the check and paid the fee. 

That felt right to me. 

I didn't add anger to the employee's day. I didn't contribute to the unending complaints I hear all the time about the incompetence of government, whatever the level. I won't go to The Lounge or family dinner or anywhere else and bitch about being assessed this fee. 

No, I just thanked her for helping me, hopped in the Camry, and blasted over to Silver Peak Espresso, ordered a latte from another public servant -- to me, baristas are public servants!-- and headed west and then south to the CdA Casino. 

2. I'm thoroughly enjoying this routine of heading down to the CdA Casino on Winning Wednesdays, doing all I can on Wednesdays to make the modest amount of money I've budgeted for myself last, and racking up double points on my player card -- that's one of the perks of Winning Wednesdays: double points! 

I jumped right on Silverwood's Timber Terror today, going down, down, down and then having a good spin here or there to keep me able to play, losing some more ground, gaining some ground again, and so getting to play a fun assortment of games. It was a fun roller coaster day

I took a break from spinning reels after a while and enjoyed a ground brisket burger with fries at the Red Tail Bar and Grill. 

I returned to the floor and as it neared time for me to think about heading home, I returned to a favorite game, Invaders of the Planet Moolah. I hadn't had any luck earlier on this machine, but this time around I had a pretty good spin which brought me back to even and I decided to call it a day. 

I am always happy to walk out of the casino with same amount of money I walked in with! 

Low stakes. Moderate bets. Good discipline. A delicious lunch. Breaking even. I had a most relaxing time. 

3. I've written on this blog before that during my sophomore year at North Idaho College, I used to listen to classical music records while I read class assignments. I've also mentioned that I used to choose records sometimes by instrument -- sometimes I'd listen to a trumpet being featured or a flute or the harpsichord, and back then I had an odd love of the bassoon. 

Well, today, as I was working a puzzle and listening to Symphony Hall on SiriusXM, Preston Trombly began to introduce the next piece of music he had cued up and began to talk about Mozart having composed only one bassoon concerto, the Bassoon Concerto in B Flat. 

The concerto got underway and suddenly I was transported back to the Molstead Library, reading an existential short story by Sartre or Camus or possibly a story by Flannery O'Connor exploring the violent intrusion of grace or an assignment regarding the history of the Pacific Northwest, and I was amazed at how familiar Mozart's concerto was to me, making me think that I must have listened to it repeatedly because I seemed able today to anticipate every move it made and it had been decades since I had listened to it.  

Listening to those albums back at NIC was a private eccentric pleasure of mine and, once again, today I was very happy that I was willing back then to entertain myself with pleasures that I didn't share with anyone else. I didn't know anyone else who dove into them and I was happy to be a little odd.  

Three Beautiful Things 09-23-2025: KIDNEY PATIENTS UNITE!, House Cleaning, Gibbs and I -- Who's the Boss?

1.  Two longtime friends, Rick and Linda, are both dealing with kidney disease. I heard from Rick yesterday and today and we discussed our experiences with dizziness. He's having way more serious onsets of vertigo than I am (I'm not having onsets) and he explained what he's learned about what's he's going through from the medical pros. 

Linda and I meet for a meal every time I travel to Eugene and we have discussed our kidney situations frequently. It was heartening to read that Linda has been taking very good care of herself. She hopes she gets good news about her status on the transplant list and other things when she has an upcoming appointment.

Rick closed our back and forth texting with an expression of solidarity that I shared with Linda and that she repeated back to me and that I'll continue to use with both Linda and Rick and any other nephro-friends I might make:

KIDNEY PATIENTS UNITE! 

2. I got a lot of house cleaning done today and that was very satisfying. I have more to do -- isn't there always more to do? -- and I'll get back to it on Thursday and Friday.  I will not let house cleaning interfere with Winning Wednesday at the CdA Casino! 

3. I think Gibbs is manipulating me and I'm all in! 

Gibbs, as I have no doubt mentioned in this blog before, is an energetic barker. 

When he goes outside, sometimes he just sits quietly on the back porch or struts quietly around the yard, but more often than not he barks. He barks when he hears other dogs in the neighborhood. He barks if he can hear people in front of the house. He barks at unfamiliar voices coming from Christy's yard. He barks at Jane. He barks at Jane's dog. He barks at the wind moving blades of grass. Sometimes he just barks because he can.  

Over the last couple of months or so, Gibbs has been much easier to bring back into the house. 

I know dogs have better hearing ability than humans and that I don't have to raise my voice with Gibbs. 

So, if I step out, and in a quiet voice say Gibbs' name, he comes running back to the house, mainly because he knows I'll give him shredded sharp cheddar cheese when he comes in. 

So how does he manipulate me? 

Lately Gibbs has been going out for no reason other than to bark from the porch so that I'll come to the door with a sprinkle of cheese and he'll get to eat this favorite snack of his. 

So, who's giving orders and who's obeying in the excellent relationship Gibbs and I have developed? 

I'd say it's pretty much 50/50. 

And Gibbs always gets some cheese! 

By the way, I have not found a way to stop Gibbs barking in the house whenever there's activity outside. Luckily, things are slow around our neighborhood, so he's quiet most of the time. 

But, when it comes to indoor barking, Gibbs rules the house. 

I've come to accept this as just a fact of life and I'm not going to spray him with vinegar or do anything else I've heard can quiet down a barking dog. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-22-2025: The *Holberg Suite* Entranced Me, So Did Hearing Peter van de Graaff Again, A Lost Bill Payment

1. Today it happened again. 

A musical composition entranced me. 

I had SiriusXM's Symphony Hall on and host Preston Trombly played a piece that I had completely forgotten about, but that I listened to frequently about twenty-five or so years ago. The composition is the Edvard's Grieg's Holberg Suite. 

I don't think I've ever heard the Holberg Suite performed live. I used to have it on a cd and listened to it often in one of our bedrooms in our house in Eugene. 

Hearing it today entranced me, much like it did back then. It took me back to the excitement I felt as Debbie and I started our life together and as I suddenly became a stepfather and was getting to know Adrienne, Patrick, and Molly better each day. 

So as the Holberg Suite played today, images and memories of our early family times rose up, accompanied by the way sunlight came into that house. The Holberg Suite lit my inner life, my heart and soul, in much the same way sunlight came pouring into that house. Taken together, the house light, the family memories, and hearing the Holberg Suite again, gave me the sensation of being filled with light myself. 

2. I started listening to Symphony Hall on trips to CdA and Spokane for labs and medical appointments and I enjoyed listening not only to the morning music, but to the morning host, Colleen Wheelahan. 

I decided not to limit my listening to this channel in the car, but began, through the SiriusXM app, to listen at home as well. I have this channel on as I go to sleep so that I wake up to Colleen Wheelahan whose show comes on at about 3 a.m. PST. 

It didn't take much poking around on the World Wide Web to discover that Wheelahan also hosts a classical music program on WUOL in Louisville later in the day, starting at 3 in the afternoon out west. I downloaded WUOL's app and often, not always, I listen to her show in the afternoon. 

I also subscribed to Colleen Wheelahan's Substack account and she's a very good writer, bringing the same intelligence, optimism, and accessibility to her essays that she brings to her radio programs. 

Well, today I caught about the last 90 minutes of Colleen Wheelahan's WUOL program and I didn't turn off the station. 

Maybe it was around 9 or 10 o'clock and suddenly I was back in that bedroom in Eugene again. Overnight, Eugene's classical radio station, KWAX, played a nationwide program of classical music hosted by Peter van de Graaff and I frequently left it on while I slept and enjoyed waking up through the night to selections he played and to his concise introductions to these selections. 

I didn't actually know that WUOL carried Peter van de Graff's overnight program and suddenly it came on and I was back in the company of his superb work as a music host and once again I was transported back to where I had been earlier in the day, back to our house in Eugene, back to the memories I cherish, and back to a time in my life when I was doing then what I'm doing now, trying to find a way to listen to all the different kinds of music I enjoy so much and letting whatever music it is transport me to times in my life that I love to remember. 

Footnote: If you are a KWAX listener and reading this blog, I'd like you to know that I know that Peter van de Graff served as KWAX's music director from 2016-24. I've also read a bit about his departure.  

3. Kellogg's city hall has a drop box where we can leave off the payment of our garbage collection/sewer bill. I dropped my payment in the box early in the month and the check never cleared. 

Today I called city hall and an eager to help me employee tried and tried to track down where my check might have wandered away to without success. 

No problem. 

I can accept mystery. 

I'll just go up tomorrow and hand them another check so the bill is paid and if my lost check ever shows up I'm fine if the city tears it up. I'm also fine with applying it to next month's bill. 

I'm satisfied that the employee I talked with on the phone worked so earnestly to figure things out and was so open with me about how puzzled and maybe even a little upset she was. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-21-2025: Debbie Will Soon Be in Kellogg, Ahh! Here Comes Fall, Bon Scott and Bagpipes and Everyday Dancers

1. Debbie and her nieces and a nephew put their heads together and planned a family get together in northern Illinois in late October. Debbie decided she'd travel to Chicago for this get together from Spokane. 

Do you see what's coming? 

Yes, that's right: Debbie is going to come to Kellogg for about three weeks before she goes to enjoy family in Illinois.

Big news! 

I'll pick Debbie up at the Spokane airport shortly before noon this coming Saturday. 

2. Two things are working really well for me as we move from summer to fall. 

First of all, there are many more cooler temperatures in each 24 hour period and second of all, this cooling down is helped by the decreasing number of hours of daylight. 

Just like yesterday, I took advantage of this cooling down and the cloudy day and walked. I drove up to the medical center, parked, and walked for about twenty minutes up to the high school and back toward the Camry on the high school trail.

I need to build up my wind, but I was very happy with my steady gait and with the strength in my legs. 

3. I was enjoying video clips of WNBA playoff action and somehow I stumbled on a video I discovered in the last year. it's a favorite.  My stumble was a thrilling surprise. 

The video features AC/DC playing "It's A Long Way To The Top" live on an Australian television show called "Bandstand" in 1976. 

I love that Bon Scott was alive in 1976 and his vocal performance on this video is superb. 

I love that Bon Scott adds to the rockin' drive of this great song by playing the bagpipes. It's awesome. 

I love that the producers of this program evidently invited women from the audience to dance on stage.

They aren't flashy. They look like they could have been recruited out any one of the many classes I taught at Lane Community College. I loved this. 

The whole scene on stage is great. I mean I love watching videos of AC/DC performing in huge arenas with head banging fans wearing AC/DC merchandise and putting devil horns on their heads and flashing hand signs that are not comprehensible to me, but this video predates all of that. AC/DC is emerging. This video is a superb record of what they looked and sounded like as they were climbing their own long way to the top. 

Here's a link to the video:

AC/DC - It's A Long Way To The Top LIVE On TV 1976

Three Beautiful Things 09-20-2025: Yellowstone Car Show, Awesome Early Afternoon in The Lounge, Walking Gives Me Hope

1. I knew Stu's brother, Steve, was going to show his car at Kellogg's Yellowstone Car Show today. Whether Stu would be able to make it over was up in the air. 

I got a text from Jake telling me that he and Tim O'Reilly were uptown at the car show. I had a handful of routine pet and personal tasks to take care of before I could leave the house, but I stumbled through them and blasted uptown. 

The car show was on McKinley Ave. I parked near the corner of Portland and Main and hoped that I'd find the temperature outside moderate so that I could walk down McKinley without feeling sick or dizzy. That's how I react to heat these days. 

The temperature was perfect! There was a breeze! 

I started walking west on McKinley and WOW! there was Stu and his son, Jeff and big brother Steve. 

Stu made it! 

I visited a little while and headed on down to The Lounge, keeping an eye out for Jake and Tim. 

2. I arrived at the threshold of The Lounge, ready to swoop in, and out came Tim's brother Jim, the man who originated this car show in Kellogg.

He's since turned the running of the show over to the Elks and provides whatever advice and counsel the Elks might need to put on a good show. 

Jim was beaming as he exited The Lounge, very happy with how well the show was going today and with the number of people roaming uptown Kellogg. 

I strolled into The Lounge and the seat Jim had occupied was empty, so I first shook hands with Tim Shannon and then plopped myself down between Jake and Tim. 

It was a great session.

Stu dropped in for a short visit later. John Sevy strolled in. We hadn't seen each other for a long time -- I know I haven't seen him since the transplant in May, 2024. 

I enjoyed a couple of Bud Zeros, listened to stories, got caught up on what Tim's getting done working on his Rose Lake cabin, and headed home in good spirits -- forever friends, great stories, and some belly laughs never fail to uplift me. 

3. Since, oh, about late July I've been experiencing funny sensations in my head -- I guess mild dizziness would describe it -- and I've been mildly unsteady on my feet. I think vertigo might be too strong of a word, but I haven't been feeling normal or walking quite right. 

This condition hasn't stopped me from doing anything. 

I've been hoping that this unsteadiness was an effect of a medicine the transplant team added to my regimen back in July. A couple of weeks ago, they took me off of it. 

I've noticed that this unsteadiness is most apparent in the morning and that I grow more steady as the day progresses. 

Today, as I walked the relatively short distance from the Camry to The Lounge and back again on the shady side of McKinley Ave and in the breezy and comfortable conditions, my gait grew steadier and the sensations I feel in my head diminished. 

I have hope that with more walking, especially as the days become cooler, that maybe getting up and around and out more might help this annoying unsteadiness subside further. 🤞🤞🤞

Three Beautiful Things 09-19-2025: Labs: Good News, Cold Bud Zero at The Lounge, Keys and Nostalgia

1. As my lab results from Wednesday came swooping into my portal, I thought they looked pretty solid. Today Nurse Jenn messaged me and confirmed that. In addition, she told me that Dr. Poudyal has moved my labs from bi-weekly to once a month. So, I will next have labs drawn on October 15th.  I have an appointment with the transplant team on October 20th. I see Dr. Bieber on November 13th. 

2. This update from Nurse Jenn parachuted into my cell phone while I was enjoying a Bud Zero at The Lounge. Ed and I met up there at 3 o'clock. It was a relaxing hour or so of yakkin' about fantasy baseball with Cas, talking about baseball history with Cas, and feeling very happy that Ed had such a great time touring Western Montana with Nancy and the Derbyshires. 

3. Christy texted me about house keys. She wants to be sure to have a key to our house and was ready to go have a copy make. This request prompted me to inspect our key collection. As I thought, we have several copies of our house key already cut, so I put one of those keys on a dog-themed key chain for Christy. 

I have funny flashbacks to past times in my life in two kind of unusual ways. The first doesn't happen so much because of all the payments I make electronically, but at one time I could call up memories of all sorts of things by thumbing through cancelled checks. 

Keys are the same way. I keep some keys around, like a set of Mom's keys, just for sentimental reasons and for the memories attached to them. 

So, not only did I get our key collection pretty much straightened out, I enjoyed some nostalgia, too. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-18-2025: A Great Trip and Sad (ha ha) News, More Good Lab News, Cooking Curry a Bit Differently

 1. I got a fun phone call from Ed today. He and Nancy and the Derbyshires went on an exciting trip to Montana where, among other things, they drove the Going-to-the-Sun Road at Glacier National Park, visited Chico Hot Springs, and toured a handful of towns, and just had an all-around great time. 

Ed also had some sad news that he wanted to be sure I was sitting down to hear. (Don't worry. It's all a joke.)

One of my favorite gaming machines, unavailable at CdA or at the Spokane Casinos, but available in Montana, called Wolf Moon is no longer available at the Old Montana Bar in Saltese, about 30 minutes from here. 

We had a fun time pretend mourning about this development, but, I admit, I hope that game won't be gone from other joints in Montana like the Wild Coyote near Thompson Falls or the Way Side Bar in Trout Creek. 

I'd hate to live out my remaining days without the occasional spin of the Wolf Moon reels! 

2. More results of my lab work flew into my patient portal today. There's no trace of the two viruses in my system that the docs always test for. This helps us see that I'm not over immune suppressed. I think the transplant team will be happy with the level of tacrolimus (the anti-rejection med that always gets tested) in my blood. It sure SEEMS to me that right now the balance between the suppression and the activity of my immune system is in pretty good shape. 

3. When I went to Trader Joe's on Wednesday, once again the frozen chicken tenders I like to have on hand were not available. 

I didn't cry. 

Or complain. 

I shrugged. 

And I bought some sliced chicken breast, unfrozen. 

I used about half of that meat this evening to make a yellow chicken curry. 

Often, I prepare the vegetables I use in the curry by stir frying them. 

Not today. 

I got out the wok, chopped up onion, celery, sweet pepper, yellow potatoes, and mushrooms and had whole spinach leaves near by. 

I quick fried the chicken pieces, made the curry sauce, poured it over the chicken and then added in the vegetables. I also added in two packets of Thai noodles. 

In other words, I low boiled the vegetables in the curry sauce rather than stir frying them. 

It worked great and I filled a container with leftover chicken curry -- possibly two more meals worth. 

It's fun to do things a little differently than usual and to have it taste really good, too. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-17-2025: Easy Peasy at the Lab, Winning Wednesday at the Casino, Coma Nap Time

1. For several visits in a row to the Kootenai Health lab, a terrific phlebotomist, Jayden (KHS, '18), has drawn my blood. She was nearly finished drawing the fifth or sixth vial from my arm when she said words I really enjoyed hearing. "We're almost done. You're so easy peasy." 

Yes! I'm not a pain in the neck! I always, no matter what the situation, want to be easy to work with.

I floated away from her station, totally uplifted. 

2. I do my best to add some fun to these lab visits I make -- at this point, bi-weekly. 

First thing I do is break my fast at the coffee stand just outside the lab with a latte and chocolate croissant. 

The next thing I do is hop in the Camry and swoop down to the CdA Casino, spin some reels, and have a meal, sometimes breakfast, sometimes lunch. 

After eating the chocolate croissant, I didn't need breakfast, so I spun wheels for a while, had a couple of profitable spins that put me and kept me in the black, so I decided take my modest winnings home. 

Done spinning, I capped off my visit with a bowl of buffalo chili and a small Caesar salad and used points on my player's card to pay for it -- the first time I've ever done that. But, I figured now that I'm a Legend, I may as well act like one -- ha ha. 

3. Back in CdA, I stopped in at Trader Joe's and bought a few items and headed back home. I was not expecting to be exhausted when I arrived, but I guess the combination of being easy peasy, winning a little money, enjoying a bowl of chili, and strolling the aisles at Trader Joe's took the wind out of my sails. 

I put the groceries away and fell on my bed, welcomed Copper's company, and fell into a deep coma nap. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-16-2025: Jack at Right Guard, *The Whitworthian* 1975-76, Back to *Lonesome Dove*

1. Today, Debbie called me while on her way to pick up Jack from an appointment. Jack was done with the meeting early and hopped in the Corolla while Debbie and I were talking about this and that. 

Jack had his first football game as member of the Nyack High Junior Varsity team. Jack told me he plays right guard, but might be moved to center. From his perspective, Nyack lost their opener, 14-0, in part because of breakdowns on the offensive line -- which helps explain why the coaches might reshuffle it. When Jack told me he was on the O-line, I asked him how much he weighs. He thinks he is nearing 170 pounds. 

Jack told me he enjoys playing football and that "it's a lot of work", especially when he gets home from a Thursday evening game around 8:30 and still has homework to finish for Friday. 

He's a very busy and active high schooler. 

2. Upon arriving back home, Deborah wrote me an email and, among other things, told me that on Monday she'd unexpectedly run into a longtime friend named Kyle and they had a solid half an hour chat.

Deborah's mention of Kyle sent my mind off in an odd direction. I never took any psychology courses at Whitworth, but I suddenly had the thought, "The psychology department was a very interesting group at Whitworth." 

I based this on a visit three of the faculty members made to our 20th Century U. S. History theme dorm in the spring of 1976. 

I clearly remembered that Prof. Pat McDonald and Prof. Bill Johnson were two of the guest professors and I remembered that the third prof was new to Whitworth that year and I couldn't remember her name.

Suddenly, I remembered she was married. Her husband would later become a golf professional at the Sundance Golf Course in Spokane. I read more about him online -- he was (maybe still is) a part owner of the Canyon Lakes Golf Course in Kennewick. 

Knowing that this professor's last name had been Graff, I did a quick online search and up popped a PDF file from the Whitworth archives of the Whitworthian's (the school newspaper) issues for the school year of 1975-76. 

Sure enough, the paper ran a short article announcing the names of new faculty and now I know the third psychology professor was Mary Ann Graff. 

That discovery diminished greatly in importance however as I began to look at articles published my senior year and was most happy to find Sally Mueller's terrific piece, "Whatever Happened to Malo Chavez" on a scammer who called himself Malo Chavez, presented himself as affiliated with Niki Cruz, a Puerto Rican evangelist who himself was affiliated with David Wilkerson, author of The Cross and the Switchblade. Malo was at Whitworth for a short time, ripped off several people of money and wrote a bunch of bad checks around Spokane. 

Then he disappeared.  

I don't think the question Sally raised in her title was ever answered. 

It's a huge file -- one I'm happy to share -- and I enjoyed reading about Forum speakers, the campus radio station on the verge of getting started, Mark Cutshall's movie reviews, a feature on Deborah's fellow Chaplain's Assistant, Joe Novenson, theme dorms in the Village, and more. 

I'll keep going back and reading more and let myself be stirred by memories and events in my last year of undergraduate studies fifty years ago. 

3. Before I began my time travel back to Whitworth College in 1975-76, I cracked open Lonesome Dove again after a much too long hiatus. I had read the book's Part 1 and the opening of Part 2 startled and excited me. Suddenly, Larry McMurtry transports his readers to the small town where Jake Spoon killed a man (on purpose? an accident?) and the victim's brother is the town sheriff. 

We meet the sheriff. His wife knew Jake Spoon years ago. The sheriff doesn't know that. I sense fascinating conflict, confrontation, and turmoil beginning to develop. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-15-2025: I Solve a Minor Camry Problem, Food in the House Again, Nighttime with Copper

1. As I age, I am less and less aware of my strengths and increasingly aware of my weaknesses, of my manifold shortcomings. 

Among my shortcomings, a lifelong one in fact, is not having much aptitude for understanding mechanical things, like, say, motor vehicles. 

With that in mind, I have a tale to tell.

A while back, in Coeur d'Alene, I was in the left lane, needed to move into the right, checked my mirror, didn't see anyone, put on my blinker, started over, and another driver politely honked. I got back in my lane. No harm done. (No road rage either -- it was a cordial interaction.)

Later, I wondered why that light on my side view mirror hadn't alerted me that a car was in my blind spot. 

Sunday, my trip to Spokane afforded me several opportunities to confirm that the side view mirror lights weren't working in either mirror. 

So, today, I did what I always do when confronted with a motor vehicle problem. 

I panicked. 

I had daymares about cost.

I went online and read somewhere that if the Blind Spot Monitoring System craps out it can cost as much as $2,000.00 dollars to replace. 

Then I thought, "Ah, come on. Really?" I hadn't had any of things happen that I read can put this BSM system out of commission.

Then, for no good reason at all, my head miraculously cleared. 

I wondered -- is there an off/on switch for this system? Is it possible that some Camry gremlin snuck into the electronics of this car and switched off the Blind Spot Monitoring System?

A quick online search confirmed that indeed the system does have an off/on switch and the description of how to get to it made, get this!, perfect sense to me. 

So, I had an order to pick up at Beach Bum Bakery. 

I backed the Camry out of the garage, punched up the menu that has the BSM on/off switch and lo and behold, the system was off! 

I put it back on. 

I picked up my order. 

I drove on the freeway to Smelterville where I figured a car or two might pass me. 

They did. 

And as they approached from behind and came up alongside me, the light on the mirror flashed on. 

I figured out how to solve a vehicle problem. 

I rode the high of this accomplishment for the rest of the day! 

2. On Sunday, after enjoying so much visiting with Deborah and Scott and after eating that towering burger at Nosworthy's, I decided not to go grocery shopping as I had originally planned.

I just wanted to get home, check on Copper and Gibbs, and possibly take a nap (which I did).

Later in the evening, I went online and made an order at Walmart, picked it up this morning shortly before eight o'clock, and returned home relieved that the pantry and fridge were pretty well stocked. 

3. Copper still doesn't climb onto my chest and if he presses himself against me, it's when I'm lying on my back and he snuggles up to my legs. 

Recently, however, he has been vocal during the night into the early morning. He wakes me up and I quietly, almost whispering, mumble something like, "What is it Copper?" 

He doesn't exactly answer me, but he puts his face right in mine, close enough that I can smell the Friskies on his breath. 

I pet him.

He relaxes and assumes a prone position. 

I rest my hand on his midsection, either his back or his belly. 

He purrs. 

He quiets down. 

We both go back to sleep. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-14-2025: Superb Reunion with Deborah and Scott, A Towering Burger at Nosworthy's, Em and Troxstar at New Tons in Eugene

 1. Drinking coffee, enjoying a pastry, and talking with Deborah and Scott at Atticus Coffee and Gifts for about two and half hours more than satisfied the eagerness I felt yesterday for our get together to happen. 

Second things first: I loved being back in what used to be 4 Seasons Coffee, a longstanding downtown Spokane coffeehouse that opened back in the early eighties when I worked as an instructor at Whitworth College. I didn't go there often, but the few times I visited made an indelibly positive impression on me, as did stopping in at 4 Seasons with Debbie in the early years of our marriage, coupling, as I remember, coffee at 4 Seasons with a visit to Auntie's Bookstore.  

But, above all, and first of all, conversation with Deborah and Scott was so fulfilling it's almost beyond description. 

But I'll try. 

Deborah and I became acquainted as students at Whitworth back in 1974. During the 1975-76 academic year, Deborah worked as a chaplain's assistant at Whitworth for one year and I joined the chaplain's staff in the same position the following academic year (1976-77). I met Scott around 1980 when Deborah and Scott visited me and my first wife in Eugene. In the spring of 1982, I attended an academic conference in San Francisco and Deborah and Scott let me stay at their house in Danville. 

Deborah and I have maintained correspondence since then and Scott, Deborah, and I have had other meet ups in Spokane. 

From the moment we greeted each other until we said farewell, our conversation was easy, warm, stimulating, jolly, thoughtful, mirthful, analytical, forthright, newsy, and more -- everything I'd hoped for and it made me joyous. We talked about family, Whitworthians we know in common, current events, movies, our pets, books, plans for the future, memories, and more. 

2. I don't know. We might have, in a good way, worn ourselves out! 

I do know that our conversation reached its end and we said farewell, hoping we can see each other again much sooner than later. 

I decided to leave Spokane by traveling all the way to Pines Rd. on East Sprague Ave -- which meant also traveling on Appleway. 

Ed and I are going to have breakfast in Spokane Valley on our way to Pendleton on Sept. 30th. I think I know where we are going and I wanted to check it out so that I recognize it when we go there and I wanted to know ahead of time the parking situation. 

Having nailed this down, I drove to CdA, hungry for a hamburger and fries. 

I almost went to Capone's in Midtown, but I could tell it was crowded, figured it was a crowd of football fans, and so I made my way up to Nosworthy's and things were quiet there. 

I've eaten several breakfasts at Nosworthy's, but never anything else. 

I ordered a mushroom and Swiss cheese burger with everything on it and that burger was about fifteen stories tall. I munched on a few French fries and devised a strategy for eating my burger. 

My strategy worked and the burger was delicious, if a little much! Next time I'll be sure to order a quarter pound, not a half, of hamburger at Nosworthy's! 

3. Back home, I settled in, I took care of Copper and Gibbs, worked all the puzzles I'd not worked in the morning, and realized I needed groceries. 

My original plan had been to shop at Trader Joe's and Pilgrim's, but that huge burger and the slow release of adrenaline after seeing Scott and Deborah left me feeling spent and so I rocketed straight back to Kellogg after I ate. 

I made a grocery order to pick up in the morning at Walmart. 

And I also got another shot of adrenaline. 

I began receiving text messages from the Troxstar in Eugene. 

Emily, our pal and superb beer server at Sixteen Tons, was in town. Sixteen Tons is now New Tons and New Tons hosted a two hour session for Emily to see old friends and customers and to sell her books and merchandise related to her work as the beer cartoonist determined to help the world better understand the ins and outs of craft beer. You can visit her website by clicking on this link: Pints and Panels

The Troxstar helped out Emily by selling merchandise and drinking beer and he sent me a picture of the two of them, firing me up with an image of two of my favorite people in the whole world! 

Not bad, I'd say. 

I had two experiences today with favorite people in the whole world -- I wish I could have been in both Spokane and Eugene today and followed up my superb visit with Deborah and Scott with a fun time with the Troxstar and Emily. 

The picture helped. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-13-2025: Carol Inspires My Yearning for Maryland, Ed Inspires My Longing for Wolf Moon, Deborah Deepens My Eagerness to Reunite in Spokane

1. Today could have been a draggy day. I am having difficulty falling asleep at night and once I do fall asleep, I'm having difficulty sustaining my sleep. I prefer starting my days around 6:30 or 7:00 in the morning, but today I slept right up until the alarm that tells me it's medicine time for me and Copper woke me up at 8:00. 

I experienced good fortune as the day proceeded that perked me up, delivering me from dragginess. 

For starters, Carol keeps sending uplifting pictures of hers and Paul's week-long visit to Baltimore. I especially enjoyed the photographs of the Saturday Dragon Boat Races they watched in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Not only did her pictures capture the vitality of colors of the boats and the participants' costumes, they also showed anyone looking at them one of Baltimore's many beautiful features, especially on this perfect looking clear, blue, comfortable day. 

The aching I felt to be back in Maryland was good, reminding me of how much I loved living in the Old Line State! 

2. Another source of happiness also came to me through my cell phone. In much the same way I'm happy for Carol and Paul's explorations of Baltimore, I'm also happy that Ed and Nancy and the Derbyshires left the Silver Valley today on a trip to Kalispell, Glacier National Park, Helena, and a hot springs whose name I can't remember. 

In addition, yesterday Ed went into an establishment he didn't name and sent me a picture of the slot machine game he was about to play. It's my favorite game. It seems to be available locally only in Montana. 

It's the legendary (for me it's legendary!) Wolf Moon! 

Just seeing a photograph of this machine and knowing Ed was about to play it made me recreate the sound of the game's wolves howling, one of the fun features of Wolf Moon! 

3. I spent much of the day working puzzles. On Saturdays, the NYTimes Sunday crossword is available at 3:00 in afternoon. 

I knocked it out. 

But the greatest joy of the evening was not puzzle success. 

It was the text message Deborah sent me a little after 8 p.m. 

At a reception following the memorial service for Marianne Frase, she'd procured a recommendation for where she, Scott, and I should meet for coffee in Spokane at 9:30 Sunday morning. 

It was a perfect recommendation. 

Atticus Coffee. 

(Until 2009, it was 4 Seasons Coffee and Roasters.)

Until he and his wife sold this business and the nearby novelties store called Boo Radley's, these businesses were owned, along with his wife, by a member of the Intro to Literature course I taught at Whitworth in the spring semester of 1984. His name is Andy Dinnison. His wife is Kris (I'm not sure I ever knew her.)

I am eagerly anticipating a reunion with Deborah and Scott and am thrilled that we'll be meeting in such a handsome coffee shop that has, for me, a meaningful connection to my days teaching at Whitworth. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-12-2025: No More Procrastination: I Clean the Stove, Can I Catch Myself Being Confused?, Fun Ground Beef Dinner

1. I gritted my teeth with determination and tackled a job I've never been very good at: cleaning our stovetop. I didn't hurry. I thought things through. I tried different approaches and, in the end, I think I did a pretty good job. I love cooking with our gas stove, but it doesn't have a solid stove top like every other stove I've had and, for me at least, cleaning the grill and what I'll call the grid and burner mounds is challenging. But, I quit avoiding it today and allowed myself a brief moment of self-congratulation. 

2. Ed and I have made a fun habit out of meeting at The Lounge around 4:00 on Friday afternoons and it worked out easily to do it today. We are both starting to get fired up about our three nights with the guys in Pendleton, starting September 30th. As we talked about that week, I confused some dates -- nothing bad resulted -- and I realized that these small confusions happen a bit more frequently than they used to. 

Realizing this makes me want to somehow pause for a few seconds before I speak and try to make sure that I have things straight. 

I'll try. 

3. Ed finished his beer and headed to the Humdinger to buy him and Nancy some dinner. 

Coincidentally, I, too, was ready to fix some ground beef for my dinner. If I'd had the right bagels or some buns on hand, I would have fixed myself a Swiss cheeseburger. 

Instead, I got out the wok, fried chopped white onion, celery, and yellow sweet pepper and later added slices of yellow summer squash. When I assessed they were softened, I pushed the veggies up the side of the wok and then, after applying a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper, and garlic powder, I fried the ground beef. When all of this was done, I added a can of fire roasted tomatoes, black beans, and jasmine rice I had cooked, mixed it all together, let it heat up, served myself a bowl with liquid aminos added,  and enjoyed a delicious dinner. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-10-2025: Recovering a Cherished Memory, The Vaughan Williams Effect Continues, Shrimp Soup

1. Teaching at Lane Community College for about twenty-five years afforded me the fulfilling opportunity to work with many older students (often called non-traditional students). 

Hold on to that sentence for a few seconds. 

Over the past week or so, as I've been writing about the classical music that has stuck the depths of my soul, there's been a 20th century symphony roaming around the edges of my memory that I haven't been able to place, let alone remember its name or the composer. 

What I have never forgotten, though, is that in the fall term of 1995, one of my non-traditional students somehow intuited that I would be moved by this nearly hour long symphony and she handed her cd of it over to me outside of class. 

She was absolutely right. 

This cd struck me dumb. 

Instrumentally, vocally, and, above all, emotionally, it was one of the most beautiful, haunting, and unsettling symphonies I'd ever heard. 

 Earlier this week, I was suddenly struck dumb again.

SiriusXM's Symphony Hall played a movement from this symphony, and I learned again its name and composer. 

Henryk Gorecki. 

Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, composed in 1976. It premiered the next year. 

The symphony is in three movements and each features, within the movement, a soprano singing Polish texts, mournful ones. The first is a lament of Mary, mother of Jesus; the second is a message written on a Gestapo cell during World War II; the third is a Silesian folk song of a mother searching for her son who was killed by the Germans in the Silesian uprising (1919-21).

The cd the student asked me to listen to featured the mighty opera singer Dawn Upshaw bringing these three laments to life. 

I've been longing to find out, somehow, the name of this symphony and its composer. 

Now I know. 

If I forget again, it's now recorded in this blog for posterity. 

It's a piece of music that opened my mind to possibilities in classical music I hadn't imagined and became a kind of portal into a deep appreciation of Vaughan Williams, Samuel Butler, and many other composers of slow building and emotionally rich compositions. 

2. More Vaughan Williams news! 

First of all, my friend's four hour dental procedure was a success and listening to the Vaughan Williams cd I mentioned yesterday helped her endure it. 

Second of all, through a Facebook comment on yesterday's blog post, Christy told me that I had recommended the Vaughan Williams' cd that settled my friend's nerves to her about thirty years ago. I had completely forgotten I'd done so. Christy lived in northeast Washington state then and listened to Vaughan Williams while driving and taking in the beauty there. She listened to the album again, after reading my blog post, and told me how it brought back memories of driving with Everett in NE Washington, memories I sensed she was happy to have rise up. 

3. I sauteed chopped white onion with chopped carrot and celery in a pot while I stir fried shrimps, seasoned with Old Bay Seasoning, and gyoza potstickers in the wok. When the vegetables softened, I poured chicken stock over them and added the shrimps and some frozen broccoli to the pot and let this soup simmer. After a bit, I added a few dashes of Bragg Liquid Aminos to the soup. 

The combination of the vegetables, especially the carrots, the shrimp, the Old Bay Seasoning, and the liquid aminos created a broth that astonished me with its depth and subtle sweetness. 

I ate the gyoza potstickers as an appetizer and thoroughly enjoyed this soup I created out of my head. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-10-2025: (A Long-Standing Spelling Error!) More on the Vaughan Williams Effect, Lunch at the Prichard Tavern, *Cinemagic* on SiriusXM

**To me, this little note as I get started is humorous and revealing. For about thirty years, I've been referring to the mighty English composer as Ralph Vaughn Williams. Today I noticed (after about thirty years!) that I've been spelling his middle name wrong. It's spelled Vaughan. 

I can be so unbelievably out of it. . . . 

1. Speaking of Ralph Vaughan Williams, my friend who is having a big dental procedure on Sept. 11th, wrote to me again to say that, on my recommendation, she listened to Vaughan Williams' unforgettable Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. 

She loved it. She's been writing a short story about the long trajectory of a relationship that turns romantic after twenty years of friendship and then ends altogether eighteen years later. 

The Fantasia's sinks and swells, as she aptly called them, gave musical voice to the trajectory of the relationship her story explores and that makes perfect sense to me, given the way Vaughan Williams' composition rises and falls. She loved this. 

So, when she has this dental work done (by her daughter), my friend will put on headphones, and she'll listen to a great album of Ralph Vaughan Williams' music played by Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields under the baton of Neville Marriner. 

I love this album and had it on cd until it fell victim to a ruthless purge when we moved from Eugene to Greenbelt. Luckily, I can access it now online. 

2. Ed, Jake, and I rendezvoused at Ed's house around 11 this morning and blasted up the North Fork of the CdA River to the Prichard Tavern for lunch. 

As it turned out, we arrived an hour before the tavern opened, so we drove up to Murray and a ways beyond, retraced our route, and then took a spin on up the river a ways. 

It was fun gawking at the beauty of the river and sobering to view the charred remains of a fire that struck up there a few years ago. 

The yakkin' was great. Ed and Jake both have had a ton of experience in this area whether because of work or recreation and they had a lot of stories to tell, history to recall, and people to talk about. (I had nothing! Ha!) 

Back at the Prichard Tavern, we enjoyed a delicious lunch, continued to gab, and had a relaxing trip back down the river to Kingston. 

I think chances are very good that we'll get together for more of these lunch outings, whether upriver or over to Montana. 

3. I hadn't slept very well Tuesday night on into Wednesday morning and when I returned home the adrenaline rush of the river drive and lunch wore off and I fell into a deep coma nap. 

I woke up in time to listen to about 90 minutes of Colleen Wheelahan introducing and playing classical music tracks on Louisville Public Media's WUOL 90.5. 

I decided, as I fixed myself a green salad and some goyza potstickers for a light dinner, that I'd change gears a bit and listen to SiriusXM's channel called Cinemagic. It's dedicated to music scores from movies -- not entire scores, but tasty bites from a vast array of movies. 

What a great pleasure. I hadn't seen most of the movies whose scores were sampled this evening, but the variety of musical styles and instrumentation excited my imagination and made my evening very relaxing. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-09-2025: An Uplifting Email, Solitary and Communal Enjoyment of Classical Music, Potatoes in Moderation

1. After I posted a memory of being transported by Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, a longtime friend from Eugene emailed me a note of gratitude for reminding her of Williams' composition. She's feeling anxiety about an upcoming dental procedure and while washing and chopping vegetables for a salad she was making, she played Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus. 

Her response uplifted me. About the music, she wrote, "Oh yes. Ecstasy. Pure and true, right down deep into the marrow." 

About the dental work, she added that the procedure is scheduled for early Thursday morning and that she is "extremely anxious that it won't work, but I will be listening to Dives and Lazarus for the next 36 hours and I believe it will help me through."

To put it the simplest way possible, I love making this kind of connection with friends growing out of our shared love for the spiritual power of classical music in general and Ralph Vaughan Williams specifically. 

2. Most of my experience with classical music is solitary -- this extends all the way back to the eighth grade when I used to listen to a George Gershwin LP in the privacy of my bedroom and back to my days of studying at the North Idaho College library when I used to check out headphones and classical music albums. At NIC, I often focused my listening on specific instruments. I'd find pieces featuring the bassoon or the oboe or the clarinet and more popular instruments like the piano or trumpet or stringed instruments like the violin or cello. 

It's a source of mighty joy when my experience with this music is, in whatever way, communal. 

When I wrote a blog post a week or so ago about Ralph Vaughan Williams, another friend commented on my Facebook page that she adores Vaughan Williams' magnificent The Lark Ascending and that she and her husband had Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves playing at their wedding as they signed the register. 

I love knowing that we share adoration for Ralph Vaughan Williams. 

3. Over a year ago, in the early post-transplant days, I mixed a powder in water and drank it to lower the potassium levels in my blood. 

The powder and water worked. 

My potassium levels came into range and my job, then, was to keep my potassium consumption moderate. 

My focus zeroed in on potatoes. 

I love potatoes. 

No one told me to quit eating them, but to eat moderate amounts. 

My general approach has been to limit my consumption of potatoes to when I eat breakfast or a burger and fries at a restaurant.

The other day, however, I took a walk on the wild side at Yoke's and bought some potatoes.

Tonight, I fried two potatoes with red sweet pepper and ate this little mess as a side to the tri-tip steak I fixed.

Those potates blissed me out. 

I'll maintain my commitment to moderation and I think I'll see if my potassium levels remain in range even if, on occasion, I fry some potatoes at home. 

My motivation to keep the potassium in range? 

I don't want to return to mixing that powder and water and drinking it again. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-08-2025: A Wonderful Memory Resurfaces, I Admire Colleen Wheelahan, *The Buried Bodies Case*

1. Things slip my mind, even past experiences I cherished, but, once remembered, i cherish them again. 

One of those experiences returned today. I had tuned into WUOL, the classical music arm of Louisville Public Media, and suddenly through the miracle of streaming, I heard Ralph Vaughn Williams' Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus". 

Time stood still. Everything in my little world at home stopped. 

I'd forgotten about this composition, how deeply and immediately it moves me and how, like the other Vaughn Williams compositions I've mentioned in recent posts, it gives rise to best elements of my inner life. It softens me. It moves me to feel my capacity, and possibly the more general human capacity, for kindness, care for others (human and animal), love, and enjoyment. 

I first became irreversibly aware of Vaughn Williams in January of 1996. I heard Eugene's Mozart Players perform Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis at the University of Oregon's Beall Hall and I was transfixed as I listened and eager to pursue more of Vaughn Williams' work after I left the hall. 

I'm pretty sure in 1996 I my portable means of listening to music was with my Sony Discman. So, I began to build a small collection of cds of Vaughn Williams' compositions and I remember being at the Lane Transit District bus stop at the bustling Eugene intersection of Amazon Parkway, 30th Ave., and Hilyard St. late one afternoon as crush of people were driving home from work and suddenly Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus" played on the cd I was listening to. I'd never heard this piece before and somehow all the stopping and going and honking and pulse of traffic turned placid, as if I'd been transported to a quiet stretch on a hiking trail in the Willamette National Forest. 

I was at peace. 

2. You might wonder why I was listening to a public radio station located in Louisville, KY. 

I began listening to Symphony Hall on Sirius XM when taking early morning drives for blood work and checkups to Coeur d'Alene and Spokane. Starting at 3 a.m. (PST), the Symphony Hall host is Colleen Wheelahan and after a trip or two I came to enjoy her immensely. Her radio voice works beautifully for me and, in addition, she is very knowledgeable about the world of classical music and her introductions to the pieces she plays are superb. 

Well, after some superficial poking around on the World Wide Web, I discovered she also hosts a classical music program on WUOL in Louisville that comes on at 3 p.m. PST. 

So, not only will I continue to have Symphony Hall on at night so that when I wake up, her morning show is already on, I will, when I can, listen to her show on weekday afternoons from Louisville. 

I also discovered in no time that Colleen Wheelahan publishes her thoughts and insights about any number of subjects, mostly music related in one or another, on Substack. I now subscribe to her Substack account, and she brings the same intelligence and insight to her writing that she does to her radio work. 

Making discoveries like this is really fun for me. 

3. When I lived in Greenbelt, I got way into listening to podcasts of all kinds -- cooking, culture, art history, the media, the now defunct podcast on podcasts, and many others -- many of them were a production of one kind of public radio or another. 

For some reason, in the last several months, I fell out of this most enjoyable habit. 

Tonight, thanks to Radiolab being a crossword puzzle answer lately, I decided to pick a random episode of Radiolab and get myself listening to podcasts again.

At random, I picked an episode from nearly ten years ago entitled "The Buried Bodies Case". 

I found it both grisly and intellectually challenging and memorable. 

The story focuses on a murder case from 1973 in upstate New York state. To me, the central voice in this podcast was Frank Armani, an attorney, in his eighties when this episode was produced, who served as the defense attorney for a serial killer and rapist named Robert Garrow. 

In the course of building a defense of Robert Garrow, Armani gains knowledge about a question the police and the public and a couple of families are desperate to learn. 

Armani faces a dilemma: does he protect attorney/client confidentiality and keep this knowledge to himself? Or does he let law enforcement, the public, and the families know what he's learned?

It's thorny. It's highly charged. 

And I'm not telling what he decided to do. 

If you'd like to wrestle with the law, the ethics of defending a clearly guilty criminal, and the moral dilemma Frank Armani faced, here's a link to this episode:  The Buried Bodies Case

Three Beautiful Things 09-07-2025: A Good Day Talking with Debbie, Package to NY, Another Way to Cook in the Wok

 1. I enjoyed quite a bit of yakkin' with Debbie today, both on the phone and by text message. Much of what we talked about is just between the two of us, but I can say that these confidential discussions are productive, a good way to sort out things. I'll add that I enjoy these discussions -- we aren't add odds about anything, we are used to sorting out possibilities and options, and we've learned over our twenty-eight years together how to take things as they come and discuss them calmly. 

2. This part of our conversations is not confidential: Debbie asked me to take pictures of her clothes hanging up in the basement closet and of a small collection of shoes she has upstairs on our top floor. I immediately snapped the photos and texted them to her. Debbie responded with a request that I pack up the items she selected and mail them to her in Valley Cottage, NY. 

No problem. 

3. I thawed out some ground beef and decided to fry it in the wok. Once it had browned, I added a can of tomato, okra, and corn and a can of chickpeas and then folded in a small pot of jasmine rice. I seasoned the ground beef simply, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. 

This was a very satisfying meal, and I have leftovers, so I'm not done with it yet! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-06-2025: Obeying My Conscience, Will a Medicine Change Help?, Confusion and Clarity

1. I know. I know. I know. 

I've watched The Godfather countless times and watch clips from the movie regularly. 

This movie is always present one way or another for Debbie and me, at home or on the road. 

I don't know, though, the last time I saw The Godfather in a movie theater. 

I could have today. It was showing in CdA as today's offering in Regal's Month of Masterpieces. 

But, I looked around the house, looked at my bulging laundry basket, at my overused sheets on my bed, and decided that I really needed to take care of these things at home. 

And I did. Laundry, changing sheets, vacuuming, using the Little Green cleaner on bedroom rugs, and more. 

I really didn't want to leave and come back home to all of this. 

2. On Wednesday or Thursday, after my labs were drawn, I wrote to Nurse Jenn. Back in July, the transplant team prescribed Jardiance, a medication designed to help control protein in my urine. After a short while of taking Jardiance, I began to experience daily light headedness and mild vertigo and my blood pressure began reading low.  I asked Nurse Jenn if it was too early to tell if Jardiance was having the therapeutic results the providers hoped for and told her what I'd been experiencing. 

I heard back from Nurse Jenn quickly, on Friday. 

She confirmed that my blood work numbers looked great, looked stable, and that the team of providers agreed I should stop taking Jardiance and that I should seek medical attention if the lightheadedness, mild vertigo, and lower blood pressure persists. 

I will continue to have labs drawn every two weeks. 

With the cessation of taking Jardiance, I can find out, I hope, if it's been the Jardiance that's caused the fizzy sensation in my head, the mild difficulties I've had with balance, and the drop in my blood pressure numbers. 

(By the way, Dr. Bieber reduced my blood pressure meds in mid-August. That move definitely helped bring up my systolic numbers, but the diastolic numbers have been more stubborn and continue to be a bit lower than I want.)

Right now, after only two days off the medication, I'd say it's too early to tell what difference it's making.  

3. I was fixing myself a dinner tonight of panko-coated baked chicken drumsticks with a side of sauteed yellow squash and mushrooms and some heated up leftover rice. 

My mind wandered, for reasons I can't recall, back to high school basketball.

In the ninth grade, I knew what my role on the team was, what was expected of me, and how our team worked together to run a solid offense and to play at least adequate defense. 

After that year, I never again knew what my role as a Kellogg Wildcat was or what was expected of me and or what my place on the team was and I fell into a state of confusion that debilitated me. 

Thinking about this, I didn't think much at all about how high school basketball could have been different, rather I thought long and hard about the debilitating effects confusion has had on my life at several junctions. 

Another way to put this would be I thought about the paralyzing effect not knowing what I was doing has had on me, whether as an athlete -- mostly when I played golf --, in my years as a graduate student, in broken relationships, and in other parts of my life. 

Before long, though, I turned my attention back to the chicken and vegetables. 

No confusion here. 

I knew what I was doing! 

I knew how long to bake the chicken and when the vegetables would be ready to eat. 

And knowing what I was doing tonight in the kitchen led me to think of the many other parts of my life where I at least think I know what I'm doing and am not addled with confusion. 

Eating dinner was much more enjoyable with my mind focused on clarity in my life. 

I'm glad I left the inevitable indigestion that accompanies thinking about confusion behind. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-05-2025: Uh Oh! The Beanery Serves Milk Shakes, Story Hour at The Lounge, Another Wok Experiment

1. I've had a craving for hard ice cream milk shakes for a couple of months. For the most part, I've resisted this craving, limiting myself to a few hand stirred shakes at home and to a drive to the Harrison Creamery and Fudge Factory for a milk shake a week ago. 

I mailed the Sube's license plates to Rich today and, on my way back home from the Post Office, I did not resist stopping at The Beanery, aware that they serve Cascade Glacier ice cream, but unsure if they offer milk shakes. 

Uh oh. 

They do. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my Cookie Monster milk shake and now I'll be faced with a daily decision: Do I give in to my milk shake craving? Go to The Beanery? Or do I resist? 

2. No need to resist going to The Lounge this afternoon! 

Sue and Cleve joined Ed and me and we grabbed a table and had a good session of storytelling and catching up.

It was a good day for the Class of 72 this afternoon. Tona dropped in and later Jake and Carol Lee arrived. It was great to see all of them. 

Sue is a WNBA fan, especially of the Seattle Storm. She and I didn't talk long about the WNBA, but I really enjoyed the conversation we did have. Sue is very positive about the WNBA and so am I! Talking about it fired me up. 

3. Tonight, as I continued to give my wok a workout, I wondered how it would be to make a few Trader Joe's gyoza potstickers a part of the stir fry rather than my usual habit of eating them as an appetizer. 

So, I stir fried onion, celery, yellow squash, red cabbage, mushroom, and sweet pepper with a few shrimp and added the chicken gyoza potstickers along with the jasmine rice I had cooked. 

I was very happy with the results and just never seem to tire of one evening of stir fry after another. 

 

Three Beautiful Things 09-04-2025: Gibbs Survives a Coughing (Choking?) Spell, Cinnamon Raisin Bagels!, A Tasty Stir Fry

 1. Back in May, Gibbs had an incident of choke coughing and honking. We took him to the emergency vet in Post Falls and X-rays revealed that whatever had caused the honking/coughing was no longer present and that Gibbs' persistent coughing was probably from irritation. 

Tonight, as I settled into bed, Gibbs started coughing, not honking, but coughing as if he was again choking on something. 

I got up. I put Gibbs on my lap and in about a half an hour or so, his periodic coughing subsided. 

Gibbs relaxed. 

He scooted off my lap and lay next to me, put his chin on my thigh, and fell asleep.

He slept for about fifteen minutes without any coughing.

He woke up, leapt off the chair we occupied, found the place he wanted to sleep on his own, and I went to bed. 

Whew! 

Gibbs had no problems during the night and is back to his alert, vigilant, barky self this morning. 

2. It's always a superb day for me when Rebecca at Beach Bum Bakery bakes a batch of cinnamon raisin bagels. I texted Rebecca with an order, screamed to the bakery, and galloped the Camry back home with a half a dozen of them. Later in the day, I texted Rebecca and told her if she had any left over at closing time, that I would return to the bakery on Friday morning and buy whatever she had left. Turns out she had five, so I'll have a nice supply of these wondrous bagels in the freezer. I hope I can make them last a while, but my voracious love of these bagels might just move me to eat them in a short period of time! 

I also purchased an irresistible molasses ginger cookie and in the middle of the afternoon I enjoyed it with a homemade latte. Good Lord this was a delicious and uplifting snack.  

3. I tried something a little different in the kitchen this evening. I took out a couple or three frozen chicken tenders and opened a packed of Thai noodles (pre-cooked, but packed into a square that needs to be heated so the noodles will come apart). I poured chicken stock into the wok and dropped the chicken pieces and the noodle square into the broth, brought it to a boil, and let the hot brother thaw the chicken and loosen up the noodles. 

This technique accomplished what I wanted. I took the noodles out of the wok and put them in a bowl. I cut up the thawed, but not cooked through chicken pieces. I emptied the wok of the little bit of chicken broth that remained in it.

Then I stir fried onion, cabbage, yellow pepper, yellow summer squash, celery, and mushrooms along with the chicken pieces. I added spinach leaves and returned the noodles to the wok. Before long I had just what I wanted: a tasty stir fry! 

Three Beautiful Things 09-03-2025: Sleep and Labs, I'm a Legend (ha ha)!, Labs Look Solid So Far

 1. Thanks to my sleep, wake up, stare, fall back asleep, wake up, pet Copper, stare, go back to sleep pattern I've developed at night, I did not blast out of the house early this morning to go to Kootenai Health, but I was on the road in time to arrive, wait a little while, have my blood drawn, and take my morning pills at an acceptable time. I have to wait until after my labs to take my pills -- haven't I explained this before? Yawn -- so I try to have my blood draw done before 8:00, my morning pill time, but Dr. Bieber assured me that if I took my pills by 9:00, all would be fine. And, that's pretty much what I did today.  I felt much safer rocketing over to CdA having slept a little longer than usual. 

2. Ever since the transplant, I've done my best to add something fun to medical appointments -- whether it's going to Great Harvest and Trader Joe's in Spokane or, as I've been doing lately, heading to the CdA Casino to spin some reels on Winning Wednesday. 

I enjoyed a biscuit and gravy with hash browns and scrambled eggs for breakfast at the Red Tail when I arrived at the casino and then I hit the floor with one simple goal: BECOME A LEGEND! 

I was very close to moving up a tier on my Player's Card and after spinning reels for a while, I went to the Player's Club kiosk, swiped my card, and, sure enough, I'd advanced to the club's second tier and its added benefits. I went to the Player's Club counter, swapped out my yellow Premier card for a blue Legend one and floated ecstatically <---- hyperbole 

back to the machines.  

I took a picture of the Legend card and texted it to Ed who (ha ha) told me he was very proud of me. 

No jackpots today. No big wins. Just a solid breakfast, a couple hours of relaxation, and new blue card.

3. Lab results parachuted in on MyChart as I dug into breakfast and as I spun reels. The bloodwork looked solid and stable. More results to come -- and then, most likely next week, Nurse Jenn will send me a message about how we'll move forward. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-02-2025: Rita and Glenn Gould, When Music Strikes Deep, Debbie Called Me

 1. Rita Hennessy and I began our work together as team teachers in the fall of 1993 and whether we were co-teaching or simply working together in the Learning Community Rita had formed, we continued our collaborations until Rita retired -- was that at the end of fall term of 1999? 

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Rita for countless ways she influenced my work and for our long lasting friendship.

Lately, one particular class session has been on my mind. 

Rita was committed to slowing down our students, to giving them time and a place to be quiet, to gather their thoughts, to write, read, and do other kinds of projects unhurriedly and often in silence. 

One day, while students were working on something, she got out a cassette player and popped in a tape of Glenn Gould playing J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. I don't remember if she played Gould's exuberant recording made in 1955 or his 1981 recording, a much more meditative and soulful version, made near the time of his death. 

What I do know is that Rita's exercise introduced me to both Glenn Gould and to The Goldberg Variations. 

That day moved me to rent a movie I'd never heard of entitled Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. 

The movie does cinematically with Glenn Gould's life what Bach did in composing the Goldberg Variations. Bach established a theme to open the piece and then he composed thirty variations upon that theme and in the 32nd segment, returns to the original theme again. 

Bach composed relatively short variations and that's what the movie presents: thirty-two different short films, each titled, exploring the theme of Glenn Gould. 

2. The memories of Rita and the movie came bubbling up today when SiriusXM's channel Symphony Hall played Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

As the composition developed, I realized that I should have included it in the short list of compositions I mentioned in yesterday's post in which my sense of myself and the state of my soul reside. 

The second short film in Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould introduced me to Wagner's masterpiece. In that short film, the actor playing Glenn Gould, through a voice over, tells about his (Glenn Gould's) boyhood days in the family's summer cottage on Lake Simcoe in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The film could have been entitled "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Boy". Set in the Edenic world of Lake Simcoe, with sublime Tristan and Isolde swells up as we see the lake, the mist, hear the gulls, watch a passage of Glenn Gould's mother teaching him to play the piano. This just over four minute film ends with Glenn Gould as a young adolescent seated next to a radio. Secretly his mother and father watch him as he listens to Tristan and Isolde, transfixed, almost pained by the beauty of the music. Tritan and Isolde is touching and shaping him. 

I watched the short film "Lake Simcoe" on YouTube and I realized that while I don't have words for what happens when a piece of music reveals to me, through feeling, my sense of myself (my best self) and the state of my soul, I know what it's like to have a piece of music seem to stop my world, to take me at once deep into myself and outside myself, to stare into some great beyond, to have tears stream down my face, to feel as if I'm one with my love for family and friends, the beauty of the natural world, the splendor and vitality of my fondest memories, and more. 

This experience happened when I heard Tristan and Isolde last night. It happened again an hour or two ago when I was thinking about this blog post and over the radio came the stirring sounds of Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations. 

3. Debbie called me unexpectedly this evening and we talked for nearly an hour. Much of what we discussed is confidential, but I can report that Jack had a good first day of high school and is busy with all kinds of studies and activities. I can report that Ellie is home all this week and will spend that time with Debbie. Yesterday they made pesto! I can also report that Debbie's timeline continues to be open-ended and that we hardly discussed when she might return. 

Three Beautiful Things 09-01-2025: My (Peculiar?) Private Little World of Listening to Music

 1. I listened off and on over the Labor Day weekend to a countdown on the Symphony Hall channel on SiriusXM. The channel polled listeners to find out their favorite orchestral works, excluding symphonies and concertos. Symphony Hall is on Channel 78, so after compiling the results of their poll, the channel played its listeners' top 78 choices and counted them down and reached #1 this afternoon. 

Right now, on Tuesday morning, as I write this post, the Symphony Hall channel is replaying the countdown and I'm enjoying having it on while I peck away on my laptop. 

2. I got to thinking today about how listening to classical music feels like having a secret life. I'm not an expert. That's for sure. In fact, I've been thinking that I'd like to get straight in my mind once and for all when different composers lived and teach myself more about the different periods of classical music. 

Listening to this music is a private pleasure. I don't listen with anyone else. It's not a subject I ever discuss with anyone else -- well, on occasion Debbie and I will talk about a piece of music or a composer. 

In my private little (peculiar?) world, I play some kind of classical music radio station all through the night (unless I put on the Grateful Dead channel). A lot of my sense of myself and the state of my soul lives in compositions such as Bach's Goldberg Variations, Ralph Vaughn Williams' Fantasia Upon Greensleeves and his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Samuel Butler's Adagio for Strings, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, to name a few. 

I don't have words to explain how this is true, but these compositions and many others are not, for me, just background music, but are ways I can access deeper regions of my inner self in ways that are akin to religious. I've learned in my adulthood that this is how I respond to beauty, whatever form it takes. 

3. Later in the evening, I turned my attention to rock music that has this same deep effect on me, to music and tunes that have very little in common with the sounds of Bach, Vaughn Williams, Butler, or Gershwin. 

I turned to YouTube and repeatedly watched Joan Jett perform "Roadrunner" on the David Letterman Show and then watched a video from about fifteen years earlier of the Modern Lovers, the originators of this song, performing the song to rapidly flashing images of driving in and around Boston.  

Then I watched a handful of invigorating videos of the B-52s, some from the band's early days and another more recent video.

Tina Weymouth's bass line in the Talking Head's song "Psycho Killer" has been playing over and over in my mind lately and I am wowed by the recently produced video of "Psycho Killer" featuring the great Saoirse Ronan and also watched a video about the making of the Ronan video and listened to its director, Mike Mills, share his vision of the song and the video itself. I especially enjoyed his unbridled praise of Saoirse Ronan. 

So in my (peculiar?) private little world of what music moves me, I ended my session of deep feeling and enjoyment by watching for the four millionth time a live performance of AC/DC playing "Thunderstruck". 

I have no words. No explanation. It just gets to me. 

Three Beautiful Things 08-31-2025: Debbie Rockets Up the New Jersey Turnpike, I Decide, Cheeseburger Family Dinner

1. I was just beginning to wake up shortly before seven this morning.

The phone rang. 

It was Debbie. 

She knows I developed a sentimental attachment to the New Jersey Turnpike between 2014-17 and that together we had some great rides on the turnpike that culminated in visits to Sally and Ted (RIP) and to Adrienne and Jack. 

So she called to tell me she was on the New Jersey Turnpike and would be in Valley Cottage within ninety minutes to be with Adrienne, Jack, and Ellie again. 

She'd left the Diaz house early and her reward was relatively light traffic, making the drive on the New Jersey Turnpike all the more enjoyable. 

If Debbie hoped to her call would make me nostalgic, would unleash treasured memories, and make me wish I could be with Debbie in her new Corolla making her way to Valley Cottage, NY, she succeeded. 

2. I did decide one thing today.  

When Carol assigned me to bring any kind of salad to Family Dinner tonight, I decided almost immediately to make a macaroni salad, a kind of salad I'd never made before. 

One burning question remained: a mayonnaise-based salad or an oil and vinegar one? 

For several hours on Friday and Saturday, I had my mind set on making a mayo-based salad and liked the looks of a recipe for a macaroni and tuna salad.

Suddenly, at some point, I changed my mind. 

An oil and vinegar dressed macaroni salad felt lighter to me and I decided with the weather being on the hot side, that I'd go with this option. 

So I did: macaroni, cherry tomatoes, black olives, white beans, red onion, and cut up parsley leaves. Thanks to a suggestion from Debbie, I added fresh dill and some conversation with Stu inspired me to work some Swiss cheese pieces into the salad. For Christy, I filled a container of the salad without the onion. 

The dressing consisted of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, rice vinegar, salt, and pepper. 

By the time I went to bed just before midnight and after our dinner, I sampled the salad one last time, not sure if it worked. My late night tasting assured me. 

It worked. 

3. For Family Dinner, Paul fired up his grill and made us each a cheeseburger patty and he grilled some mixed garden vegetables. 

With our cheeseburgers and  vegetables, we also enjoyed Christy's fruit salad, a special Ina Garten Limoncello one, with a lemon yogurt dressing, my macaroni salad, and Carol's chocolate zucchini cake for dessert. (I had mine with a small scoop of Moose Track (or something like that) ice cream and more of Christy's fruit salad and dressing. 

We had a lot to talk about, especially as Carol and Paul get ready to travel to Boise, Baltimore, and back to Boise again. 

I could hardly suppress my excitement that they will spend a week in the Old Line State, go to Camden Yards, and explore the city of Baltimore.