{"id":97196,"date":"2026-06-19T09:41:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=97196"},"modified":"2026-06-20T06:53:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T13:53:48","slug":"friday-had-arrived-and-we-expect-a-special-visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/?p=97196","title":{"rendered":"Friday Has Arrived And We Expect A Special Visitor!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Robin stayed over last night, and by the time I wandered into the family room at 6:30 a.m., she was already there\u2014bright-eyed, alert, and apparently ready to start solving the world\u2019s problems before my first sip of coffee.<\/p>\n

We shared a cup of coffee and discussed the latest circus acts happening at Boeing. I honestly didn\u2019t think things could get any stranger after I retired, but Boeing looked at that challenge and said, \u201cHold my wrench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robin headed out around 9:00 a.m. after we talked to Colleen for a while. The Colleen phone call is one of the highlights of our day\u2014right up there with coffee, naps, and discovering we still have cookies in the house.<\/p>\n

Then Mary and I got down to business. Mary\u2019s daughter is coming for dinner on her way to Newport Beach to spend time with friends, which of course means the house must look like a magazine photo shoot, the food must be perfect, and Mary and I must work like unpaid seasonal employees at a five-star resort. We worked our tushies off getting everything ready. If there were Olympic medals for last-minute tidying, we\u2019d be on the podium.<\/p>\n

We also did some early picking in the garden and sent Robin home with two bags of veggies, because nothing says \u201cthanks for visiting\u201d like making someone leave with produce homework.<\/p>\n

The tomatoes are doing well, and we just planted seven more tomato plants where the corn used to be. Apparently, the garden has decided it\u2019s going full Italian restaurant this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"

We have given away boxes and bags of tomatoes everywhere we go!<\/p><\/div>\n

We have several\u00a0 Mortgage Lifter tomato plants which are large, heirloom beefsteak tomatos known for its big size, meaty texture, and rich, sweet flavor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s famous for producing huge pinkish-red tomatoes, often around 1\u20132 pounds each, and sometimes even larger. They\u2019re great for:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Slicing for sandwiches
\n\u2022 Burgers
\n\u2022 Caprese-style plates
\n\u2022 Fresh eating
\n\u2022 Tomato salads<\/p>\n

The name comes from a man often credited with popularizing it, M.C. \u201cRadiator Charlie\u201d Byles of West Virginia, who supposedly sold the plants in the 1930s and used the proceeds to pay off his mortgage\u2014hence \u201cMortgage Lifter.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an indeterminate tomato, meaning the plant keeps growing and producing until frost, so it usually needs strong staking or caging.<\/p>\n

\"\"

I see more tomato pie in the near future.<\/p><\/div>\n

Robin’s husband Bob and I traded AI images all morning long.\u00a0 Bob is quite a talented photographer in his own right, and with AI, he is working magic!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Move over, Bonnie and Clyde, there are new bosses in town!<\/p><\/div>\n

After working all morning, I felt like a hard-working cowboy who needed a drink.\u00a0 So, I dressed up and came to visit the\u00a0\u00a0Miss Kitty C\u00f4t\u00e9 who ranthe Short Branch Saloon.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0I ordered a bottle of the finest Sass-Pa-Rilla!<\/p>\n

Sarsaparilla is a sweet, old-time soft drink originally flavored with the root of the sarsaparilla plant. It\u2019s similar to root beer, often with a slightly herbal, vanilla-like, or licorice-like taste.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Would you like a Sass-Pa-Rilla little girl?<\/p><\/div>\n

Becky arrived right on time, which was perfect because we had almost everything ready for a lovely dinner at home\u2014and by \u201calmost,\u201d I mean we were only mildly panicking.<\/p>\n

The menu featured several of Becky\u2019s favorites, all made gluten-free, because nothing says \u201ccelebration\u201d like carefully interrogating every ingredient. We started with a small tomato salad, followed by a baked potato and Mary\u2019s famous spinach-cottage cheese delight\u2014a dish so fancy it sounds like it should have its own theme music. Mary, as usual, proved she is quite an accomplished chef, and the rest of us proved we are quite accomplished eaters.<\/p>\n

After dinner, we exchanged cards with Becky and got to open some birthday cards and presents a little early, which is always the best kind of early. I received a wonderful Father\u2019s Day card with a very nice note inside\u2014just sentimental enough to make me smile, but thankfully not enough to make me cry into the baked potato.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Laugh and giggle time.<\/p><\/div>\n

The greeting card industry did well tonight.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., greeting card companies generate roughly $6\u20138 billion per year in retail sales of physical greeting cards, depending on which categories are included.<\/p>\n

A few useful benchmarks:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Annual U.S. greeting card sales: about $6\u20138 billion
\n\u2022 Number of cards sold each year: roughly 5\u20136.5 billion cards
\n\u2022 Average card price: often around $4\u20136, with premium cards higher
\n\u2022 Largest card-buying occasions: birthdays, Christmas\/holiday, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, sympathy, weddings, and graduations
\n\u2022 Major companies: Hallmark, American Greetings, Papyrus-style premium brands, plus many independent and online card companies<\/p>\n

The industry has been under pressure from texting, social media, and e-cards.\u00a0 However, physical cards remain a multi-billion-dollar business in the U.S., especially for birthdays, holidays, sympathy, and emotionally important occasions.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Happy Birthday, Becky!<\/p><\/div>\n

The phrase pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance (pronounced pee-ES-duh-ruh-ZEE-stahn(t)s) is a French loan expression used to describe the most outstanding, important, or impressive feature of an event, collection, or meal.\u00a0 Lime Jello cake!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Another smashing success brought to you from the kitchen of Chef C\u00f4t\u00e9!<\/p><\/div>\n

After dinner, we again walked the garden and bagged some goodies for Becky to take to her friends this weekend.\u00a0 We added a mess of table grapes from the vineyard.<\/p>\n

It was a wonderful time for a photo-op!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Too bad they were all dressed up, I was going to put them to work!<\/p><\/div>\n

It was getting to be 8:00 pm, and Becky had to head for Newport to stay with an old friend, so we departed the garden and headed to the car.\u00a0 She was off and running and we returned to the empty nest.\u00a0 MAry scurried off to get her jammies while the cleanup crew (me) did the heavy lifting.\u00a0 The dishwasher is full, the food is put away, and the last wine glass was carefully refilled so we could watch TV.<\/p>\n

\"\"

See you again soon!<\/p><\/div>\n

Mary and I watched some TV before calling it a day!.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin stayed over last night, and by the time I wandered into the family room at 6:30 a.m., she was already there\u2014bright-eyed, alert, and apparently ready to start solving the world\u2019s problems before my first sip of coffee. We shared … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[229,5,24,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","category-family","category-food-and-wine","category-fun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97196"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97226,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97196\/revisions\/97226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lilesnet.com\/dailydiary\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}