No irony worthy of public posting today.  Plenty of private irony.

Liza’s parents were going to take her to Pensacola today to see Mike’s sister (“Uncle” Kelly) and Kelly’s daughter, Mary, but Liza had a fever this morning, so they didn’t go.  Instead, Mike and Catherine had the day off at home with Liza, and that was like a gift from the gods for them.

ED

We’re not having any snow, although we did one year around this time.  It stayed on the ground for several days, and we actually had a white Christmas.  Our kids were too little to really appreciate it, and it pissed me off because it killed a hedge I had planted (Virburnum).

Tonight at a dinner party I was in the “guy room” with three men who grew up in the North.  I had always heard about snow chains and snow tires, and tonight I learned about the differences between them.  The guys tonight (Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit) all favored snow chains.  They said they’re a pain to put on, but they also said they’re way better than snow tires.

Since I’ve had no experience with either, I couldn’t comment.  But all their talk about snow and its perils got me wondering why the southern part of this country wasn’t more highly settled than the North was.  We almost never have snow, and when we do it’s a welcomed novelty for a day or two.  That’s only happened three times in the 36 years I’ve lived here.  It’s true we have hurricanes, but we haven’t had one of those in four or five years.  Plus, snowy weather is cold.  We get temperatures in the 30′s, as we will tomorrow morning, but it’ll be in the 50′s by mid day.

I don’t know why more people don’t move to the South, especially the coastal South.

ED

Liza’s spending the night with us tonight, and that’s always great fun for her and for us.

Tonight at dinner we said the blessing before we ate.  We said the traditional Catholic blessing, and I had heard Liza say it before.  I knew she knew it.  She didn’t say anything during that prayer tonight.  When we were done, though, she said, “And God bless everybody in the world, without exception.  Bon Appetite.”  Imagine?  A four year old saying that!  Beth and I burst into laughter.  “God bless everybody in the world without exception!”  And ”Bon appetite.”  I figure that’s something her parents must say or they say in school, although the Bon appetite part sounds like her restauratur parents.  But it’s a pretty nice sentiment, regardless of where she got it.

Putting Liza to bed is my job, and tonight she called me five or six times.  She needed the potty and water, and we took care of both those needs.  When I told her, again, that she really had to go to sleep, she did.  When I told her good night for the last time, she told me, “Good night, Grandpa, and Merry Christmas.”  How funny is that?  Beth says Liza is the perfect age for Christmas this year, and I think Beth’s right.

ED

I spent most of my day reading blogs and other internet material, and I read part of a novel, too.

I taught my compter class at the Council on Aging this afternoon, and it was a challenge.  I’m actually seeing some progress, though.  Two ladies (ages 60 and 65) are getting pretty good with the mouse, and the 82 year old lady got to the point by the end of the class that she was able to use the mouse to move cards in Solitaire.  Halfway through the class one of the other students suggested she take the biggest monitor we have.  Once she could actually see what was on the screen, she did okay.  The 82 year old has a wonderful sense of humor.  We were originally going to go for 2 hours, but an hour an 45 minutes into it they all declared they were brain dead.  I was brain dead and physicaly exhausted (from having to move between three computers constantly), so we called it quits.  We’ll have some more classes in January.

In other news, tonight I invented a new snack.  I was desperate around nine o’clock, so I searched through our refrigerator.  I found a package of grated sharp cheddar cheese and a tub of bacon and horseradish dip.  I put the cheese on Ritz crackers, and I put a dollop of that dip on each one.  I ran them through the microwave for ten seconds, and the result was a delicious savory snack.  We have a ton of sweet stuff, as one accumulates around Christmas, and I ate my share of that, too.  But then I wanted savory, and the cheese and dip snack hit the spot.  Try it.  You might like it.  It might make a decent hors d’oeuvres, too, but you have to nuke the stuff on a paper plate and transfer it to a serving plate so you don’t have the mess the melted cheese and dip make.  Don’t throw the paper plate away, though.  When the guests are gone, run it through the microwave again and lick the goodness from the plate in private.

Frugal Hostess: If you use this, make sure you give credit.  Call it an old family recipe that has been passed down for generations.  Never mind that bacaon and horseradish dip was probaby a creation of the 1970′s.  The Frugal Hostess is my daughter, Susan, and she truly does have some wonderful ideas and recipes on her website.  Plus, she’s a brilliant writer, and she’s funny as hell.  Check out her blog.  She and her husband are both gourmet cooks, and they’re both into the locally grown, organic food thing. 

Her husband, Sean, is in town right now doing carpenter-type work for various family members.  He called me today to tell me he was passing our neighborhood on the highway and he’d just call to say hi.  I didn’t have time to talk to him because I was literally walking out of the house to go to my computer class when he called on the house phone.  He has one of the best senses of humor of anyone I have ever known, and I wish I had had time to talk to him.  They’ll be here for Christmas, though, and I have a surprise for him.  It’s not a Christmas present in the sense he’ll be able to take it home, but it will always be here for him when he visits.  I won this surprise in an auction on November 7th, and I bid on it for you, Sean.  I didn’t get Mike anything special.  Yet.

ED

I had Christmas “dinner” today at my mother-in-law’s retirement center at 11:00 o’clock this morning.  The choices were filet mignon and duck l’orange, and I got the duck. It was delicious.  This is definitely an upper-middle class place, as you could probably tell from the menu.  Oh, and we started with a shrimp and crabmeat salad.  This definitely wasn’t Meals on Wheels.

This was the third “Christmas” event I’ve been to already this year, and we’ve got three or four more to go to before December 25th.  We’re going to have three more at our house, and, frankly, it’s getting to be too much.  I understand the impulse to entertain at Christmas, but enough is enough.  I only have one red dress shirt, and I’m about to wear it out.  I mean, how many times can you wear and wash a shirt in a month?

ED

I have nothing ironic to report today.  I delivered Meals on Wheels, as usual, and everybody on my route was fine. I had lunch with two friends, and they were okay, too.  This was a pretty ordinary day.

ED

I found out this morning that one of my Meals on Wheels clients died last Friday.  He was 93, and, apparently, his death was about as easy and peaceful as death can be.  He just kind of slipped away into eternity.

This man was something else.  He’d always be waiting for me in his back yard, and I’d pull up to his gate.  His house is on a corner lot on a busy street, so I’d pull up to the gate on his side yard.  He was always outside working on his truck, cutting grass, or doing something.  He seemed to always have his work gloves on, which came in handy when I handed him the hot meals for him and his wife.  The last five or six weeks one of his sons got the meals for his parents, so something must have been going on.

The man was a brick mason all his life, and at age 90 he built himself a brick mailbox that is truly something to be proud of.  And he was.  He was always cheerful and always ready with a smile or a laugh, and, over the six years that I’ve been delivering meals to him, I really got to like him.  We’d tease each other the way men do, and we’d both laugh.  I didn’t know him all that well, but I liked what I knew.  I didn’t have a meal for his wife today because their children are taking care of her.  I looked in the paper today for an obituary, but there wasn’t one.  Maybe there will be one tomorrow.

Good bye, my friend.  You enriched my life and inspired me by knowing you.  I pray that you’re reaping your reward in heaven, but I pretty much know you are.

ED

This morning, while I was at church praying for my family, one of my daughters was on the phone with her mother saying I have to take down those awful pictures of Liza that I posted last night.  She told her mother it was an emergency and that Liza looks fat in one of them.  I went back to the 30 or so pictures I took of Liza yesterday, and I found these.

Liza isn’t fat, and my sister said today that she has beautiful hair.  I had never really noticed Liza’s hair, but I guess it is pretty nice.  I love this last picture because I think it communicates her awe and wonder at the world, but it also kind of gives away her impish personality.  Listen to me.  It’s a snapshot, and I’m writing criticism like it was a work of art.  I tell you, it’s the English major in me.

ED                            

We tried to get an appointment with the professional photographer we’ve used several times in the past, but it just didn’t work out.  Beth and I knew that we had to take Christmas pictures of Liza today so we could send them to her other grandmother and to relatives is various places, so I took the pictures again this year.  Taking posed pictures of a four year old isn’t easy, and we spent a good hour on this project.  Liza dressed up in her Christmas dress, and here are a couple of the results.  I looked all over for the tripod I got for Christmas last year, but I couldn’t find it.  So, these are pictures from a slow hand-held camera.  Anyway, here are the pictures.

It used to be easy to upload pictures to Xanga, but it isn’t anymore.  I don’t know what happened.  Anyway, these are two pictures of Liza in her Christmas dress.

ED

I went to a holiday breakfast this morning at Meals on Wheels headquarters for all the volunteers associated with the Council on Aging.  There were probably 75 people there, but there were only a handful of MOW volunteers.  I ate at their table, and there were some very interesting people.  We had a Board meeting right after that, which is the only reason I got up early enough to go to the breakfast.  They gave each of us a live poinsettia and a bag filled with stocking-stuffer things.  I thought that was pretty nice.

On a totally unrelated topic, Catherine called us tonight to see if we had a large coffee maker that she could borrow for a catering they have tomorrow.  We don’t have one, but I thought I remembered that one of Catherine’s godmothers had one.  I called her on my cell while we were talking to Catherine, and it turns out she has two of those things.  I put my cell phone on speaker, and we had a very nice conversation to work that all out.  This is reason number 1,276 why Catherine and Mike were smart to move back here after Liza was born.  Their ”bench” is so deep as to be almost incomprehensible.  They have a thriving business that they built with help from their vast extended family, and Liza has grandparents, a great-grandparent, and lots of aunts and uncles who all think she hung the moon.  This little girl is going to have an AWESOME Christmas, and the adults are going to have an awesome time with her.  Christmas night her “cousins” are going to be here, and those kids are going to have a fantastic time playing.  They always do.

I really do have a great life, and I think the rest of my family does, too.

ED