Back from our Spring Adventure!
As always...it was excellent and much too short.
The above selfie together taken at the moved and completely (authentically) restored 40's Diner (d.b.a. The Oasis) at the west end of Plainfield, Indiana, now.
As someone who used to frequent the original years back, I was amazed at how careful they were to detail and it was exact...right down to the no AC...but instead large standing floor fans. I was swooning over my Vanilla Malted with fresh whipped cream and a cherry on top :) It's the little things!
An early week trip to the library together for those quiet moments.
Now "Idgy" is hooked on Det. Ret. Hodges, too. Soon to follow up with Finders Keepers.
I am nearly finished with Ken Follett's Century Trilogy. The third book was slow to start, but has gained momentum. This may be the BEST trilogy I have read for a while.
With the tropical weather, first sunny and high 80's...then raining (at times monsoon-like) and instantly becoming bright, sunny, humid and 80 again we dodged raindrops and visited several nurseries during our holiday together.
I bought her a Wisteria she dubbed "George" (...and I will pet him and stroke him and name him...) who in less than a week sitting on my patio was reaching out for the arbour with one slim tendril and to the Morning Glory trellis with another. She told me that on the way home he felt a touch on her shoulder and realized it was "George" reaching out! At any rate she is taking him back Down South" where he is actually a WEED. With the 90 degree heat and the 100 degree humidity...he will be thrilled!
She bought me a cluster of three Redbud Trees. (...aka The Children) I am going to let them grow a bit more...then divide two off to re-pot (The Twins) and try my hand at bonsai on the third (Melissa) for inside.
We plundered Snowy Pines and Cox Nursery and found (me) Winter Savory for my Herb Basket and (her) a bristly purplish Outback Australia Native which looked soft and feathery but was stiff and waxy and touted for its outstanding abilities to tolerate drought conditions called PTILOTUS...the common-name was "Joey". which sounded properly Aussie, and it stuck.
"Seriously, Dude..."
We invited Nancy and James and Nicole and Chris and Tina and The Grands over for a Pizza Gathering Tuesday...and it was nice to have everyone together :)
And she brought a small sampler box of that amazing, straight from The South- Peach Sipping Whiskey so we handed out gift-bottles at the end of the evening for everyone to take home. So nice mixed with Sweet Tea.
Hot or Cold.
And, of course, there was the Combined Birthday Celebration.
This year she turns 40.
This year I turned 55.
We had the bakery put together a sheet cake with a circle of logs made with chocolate icing to represent a camp-fire. Inscribed with "Rose" and "Idgy". Except they didn't write Rose at first...they actually piped on a Rose. She removed it and wrote ROSE. And they misspelled "Idgy" It IS Putnam County, after all. Where English isn't a second language...it usually doesn't even rank fifth or sixth.
After we added the marshmallows...and 95 candles.
It became kind of moot.
It took 4 boxes of candles...with a single candle left over.
And then we lit the cake...and grabbed our marshmallows...laughing so hard we were crying...
Pretty soon the flames rose just like a REAL Bonfire.
And then came a moment, for both of us, of terror...when we tried to blow the flames out...and...well...they weren't going out.
They were not going out.
I believed the phrase
"Oh Shit...ohshitohshitohshit"
was uttered several times.
And just when it had reached that complete panic feeling...they finally subsided a bit. Leaving us with a few to finish marshmallows over. Although by now the top of the cake was hidden under the molten tie-dye lava of nearly 100 multi-colored birthday candles.
When we finally extinguished them all...the candle circle resembled a bomb-blast radius. Twice Baked Cake.
We were lucky the fire alarm did not sound through all of this...because if it had...we would have both experienced incontinence.
I am sure of it.
Haven't laughed that long or hard since our Macon Donkey Farm/Tourism Department Adventure. Or maybe IMA? You had to be there.
Trust me.
And "Idgy" saved me once again by REMOVING the cake from the box before we set it ablaze...the box would have went up right along with the cake. She has suspended my "fire privileges" indefinitely...
Quite a few mornings spent watching the sun rise together with coffee...and also watching it set. We sat on the patio with Tucker and sipped Peach Whiskey and Miss Emily (the feral) even made a fleeting appearance on our last evening!
So now...we're back in the box again.
~Sigh~
See you in the morning for coffee...biscotti and chat!
It was wonderful :)
