I admit it--I am fixated on food. Especially while the Farmers Market is on at Pioneer Park. I browsed the Market on Saturday morning, September 27, and was intrigued with the piles of orange pumpkins and green watermelons, the apples and peaches and pears, and even the Soap Deli. I remember the years when Michael asked for a "little treat" whenever we visited the Farmers Market, and his little treat was always a slab of fresh soap. I still tease him, when we visit the Farmer's Market together and pass a soap stall, "Can I buy you a little treat?" (Jonny, by contrast, takes his treats in olive bread from the Volkers Bakery stall.)
Michael, Grandma Rose, and Jonny and Jenny joined Dad and me on September 28 to eat fall's bounty and my best creations--homemade pita bread with homemade hummus, roast chicken with fresh corn on the cob, Mississippi mud brownies with raspberries. The big dilemma--what to do with the carcass of the 6-lb chicken? Is it so large that it qualifies as a turkey and it would thus be morally wrong not to make it into soup?
We sent Jenny off, after dinner, with a bag of fresh peaches, and Jonny got a hug from Grandma Rose. Dad and I were left with the beauty of our brilliant orange chrysanthemum plant by the front door (after, I admit, the demise of all my herbs and the first, yellow chrysanthemum plant...)
Dave and I spent last Friday night and Saturday (October 3 and 4) in Las Vegas, where Dave had a psychology conference. Dave admits to putting one quarter in a slot machine and making $2, but he then eschewed all gambling whatsoever. I am not tempted by gambling, but I am tempted to take inappropriate pictures. Dave had to restrain me from snapping Vegas maidens clothed only in pink feathers. When he was not around, I snapped a picture of one of the many brides we saw around town, posing happily beneath a Hilton Hotel fluorescent map. Alas, I was zipping along Las Vegas Boulevard too fast to catch the sign advertising "drive-in weddings." Dave and I watched the Donny & Marie show, ate at the Bellagio buffet, and I shopped the outlets in Vegas and along the California border. It is probably a sign of my impending decay and decadence, but I like Vegas better and better.
After the debauchery of Vegas, we had good, clean fun yesterday--dinner with the Grandmas and Grandpa, Michael, and Jonny and Jenny. The only unseemly activity was the loud disagreement between the two sides of the table as to whether the Republican or Democrat ticket was the only one which sane and moral people could vote for.
Tonight, Jonny and Jenny are showing a power point and slides on India to Grandma Rose's empty nester group. Jenny first made the presentation to the Young Women and it was so popular that the older crowd wants to hear it, too. I am excited to attend. Michael is interviewing for next summer's business internships. He already has had an interview with the senior partner of one San Francisco company, who was very excited about Michael's engineering expertise and his 740 GMAT score.
Lisa and her little kids are doing well. Lisa has a great ward book club, reading things like a biography of Queen Noor of Jordan. I have offered to read along with her on some of those books. Dad leaves tonight on the redeye plane to Boston, and I follow just after midnight on Thursday morning. If the weather is good and Steve can arrange his vacation time, we'll travel to Bar Harbor, Maine this weekend to ride bikes and hike at Acadia National Park, and maybe eat a lobster or two. Camille says the leaves are supposed to be at their most colorful in Maine this weekend.
