We rose before the sun, heroic and slightly confused. We marched to the office, where we gulped the coffee with a dramatic wheeze. “Perfect,” Mary said, sipping bravery.
Paul opened the email inbox and discovered 147 emails, each apparently urgent since yesterday. We began replying, deleting, and pretending to understand spreadsheets.
Then Grace, the cat, arrived for quality control. She sat on Paul’s keyboard, sent “mmmmmmmm” to Bob Z, and approved three bills with her tail.
Mary offered her a treat, and with great aplomb, Grace gobbled it down!
Mary laughed so hard she snorted coffee. I declared Grace promoted to Chief Meowperations Officer.
We finished our coffee, then got dressed and headed to the doctor’s office, where I had ultrasounds of both the left and right carotid arteries. Right to make sure the operation is still good and the left to see more about the inner carotid blockage. We will know more next week when we return for the reading!
When we got home, Joe was already on his way over to relocate our flagpole from outside the wall—where it had been living its best life in the bushes and mud—to inside the wall on the concrete patio. Brilliant idea!
Now I can raise and lower the flags without wrestling shrubbery, sinking into the garden, or looking like I lost a fight with Mother Nature. Progress!
So the work commenced with Charlie providing assistance. I moved the patio chair into the shade and supervised!
We (Joe) drilled through about four inches of concrete.
While Joe worked, I sang to him from the musical Show Boat. With the drill running, I sang at the top of my lungs, “Tote that barge, lift that bale, drill me a hole, or land in jail!” I am sure Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II were rolling over in their graves.
Hearing protection was required, not because of the sound, but because of the choice of words about the hardness of the concrete AND my singing.
All was going smoothly until we tried to put the plastic sleeve on the flagpole and discovered it was 1.5 inches too small. Apparently, our flagpole sleeve has been hitting the gym. Dang!
Joe called the flagpole people and arranged for a properly sized sleeve to be sent ASAP. Until then, the pole will be resting dramatically on the front patio, contemplating its future.
Joe and Charlie went home disgusted, Mary continued her nap, and I cleaned the workbench and worked on the Daily Diary!! BTW, we did get several calls from neighbors asking me to stop singing!
Later, I was in the garage and attempted to rename the Amazon device called Flagpole. To my amazement, I discovered the electronic plug was malfunctioning, and the flagpole light had been stuck on for a long time. I ordered replacement parts that will be installed in the system tomorrow. Now I can have the flagpole light come on at sunset and off at sunrise.
Four for $25! The prices have dropped!!
At 5:30 pm, we were ready for dinner and headed to Vitorio’s in Huntington Beach. Tonight, Ken (the regular piano player) planned to have a trio, and he did, but to our surprise, we knew the drummer and bass player! We have danced to their music for years and years!
The girls were tickled! What could be better than live music from old friends and a menu filled with delectable Italian dishes!
Good friends are wonderful to have!
We had three singers this evening, and they all had great voices. We attempted to get our singer, Jim, up, but he decided not to make them look bad!
Kenon on the piano, Frank on bass, and Shelly on drums!
Vicky got a load of pictures, and she even captured Mary and me when we got up to dance!!
Vicky loves her new iPhone, and she’s now teaching us tricks she uses!
The music was so good we had no choice but to dance. The room was packed, though, so we switched to our signature “minimum-movement” style—tiny steps, polite elbows, and the occasional strategic shuffle toward the wall for safety.
Just as we were perfecting our crowd-avoidance choreography, the server appeared… because apparently even our two-inch dance moves still qualified as being in the way.
We kinda put on a show, but the band enjoyed our moves!
While Mary returned to the table, I asked Sandee to dance, and we did so with the entire table (the other ten people) looking on!
I am about to tell a story, but then I remembered it is mixed company, so I stopped before I got started.
Mary and I have fun, and at our age, that is quite alright.
At the end of dinner came dessert time, which we both specialize in. Mary went for the spumoni ice cream while I trounced on a cannoli, turning the beautiful cannoli into a twisted mess of unrecognizable ingredients. Italian cannoli are a traditional Sicilian dessert.
Cannoli is made of:
- A crispy fried pastry shell, usually tube-shaped
- A sweet creamy filling, typically ricotta cheese
- Often flavored with vanilla, citrus zest, chocolate chips, pistachios, or candied fruit
- Sometimes dusted with powdered sugar
“Cannoli” is plural; one is technically called a cannolo in Italian. (Daily Diary Italian lessons come free with the reading).
Watch Mary make the contents disappear! Poof! Once it is served, it lasts about 34 milliseconds!
The smile tells all!
Vicky and Jim made the evening even more delightful. Jim had the best seat in the house, sitting at the end of the table, looking directly at the band!
Having fun!
We departed for home after telling the owner how great the trio was. We hope they do this again! The freeway was wide open, and we made it home in about 20 minutes! It was time to hit the sack, so we did!
“Let me see into the future! Maybe if I rub it!”
We walked around for 90 minutes!
The show is about to start!!
Alex was with us this evening, always a joy to be around. Charlie is still at work at the summer camp but will return Sunday evening. We tried to get Alex to order a tomahawk steak again, but he decided on something smaller, a baby elephant.
