donut tower update

You can quit holding your breath now! As promised, I am now posting a professional picture of the donut tower I blogged about in DONUT QUEST.

First, to set the stage. Little V and I moved said donut tower from the car to the reception in this.

A deluge. Gully-washer. A drenching downpour or quite the cloudburst. We are not experienced with this kind of rain in West Texas. We were woefully unprepared.

This is how little V and I looked after hauling in the tower.

Why do I look like a drowned NYC sewer rat and Miss V looks all fluffy and cute??! She even has her chic handbag over her shoulder. Lot of good it did her. It wasn't big enough for an umbrella, apparently.

The finished tower.

Or as I refer to it, the monument to my insanity.

Every rainstorm can have a rainbow. Here's our rainbow.

Giving thanks today.

Monumental love to all.

veteran's day

I don't like Veteran's Day. It reminds me of something I never did.

My father, Bill was a veteran of the Army Airborne. He returned from World War II and married his bride, Joy, in the early 50's. People said we looked like twins...red-headed, stubborn, freckled and prominent noses. Look at the photo and you be the judge. I adored my daddy.

He was like many of his generation. He didn't want to make a big deal of his service to our country, he just desired to neatly file the past in the file cabinet and carry on.

However, Bill couldn't put the past away because it stuck to him like gum on a summer sidewalk. We'd never heard of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Have you read the novel UNBROKEN? If you haven't, you must. I read the novel this summer and the author's time spent fighting in the islands of the Pacific during WWII bone-resonated with me. His experience surely mimicked some of my dad's experiences. Reading this book was a light-bulb moment for me.

My dad was a great man....jolly, smart, fun, music-lover and general joke-ster. But the aftermath of war was too much for him and he became an alcoholic. Who knows if that is the reason (not trying to make excuses for him), but surely it was a big contributing factor. The man was always jumping out of his skin at loud noises, throwing hissy fits if he was EVER served rice and detesting when we put too many teaspoons of sugar in our iced tea. Don't kids understand the value of sugar? I can still hear the shouts and cries he made while he slept.

He died of cirrhosis of the liver when he was 55 and I was 21-pregnant with my first Sprout.

I could've held things against him for his wrong choices, but I've let go of those. I learned my dad loved me and did the best he could.

On days like Veteran's Day I just wish....just ONE TIME...I would have hugged my Dad and thanked him for his service to our country. For this teen growing up in the anti-war Vietnam era...doing that never pierced my consciousness. Brilliant me, I had to be in my 50's to realize I should have expressed my appreciation. Would it have killed me to think of someone else??

So today, I will express my gratitude to Bill. Feel free to join me if you want to.

Dad...thank you for giving up four years of your life to support our great country. Thanks for serving in the jungles of the Pacific Islands to fight the Japanese in WWII. Thank you for helping to defeat the evil dictators who were trying to quash freedom. Thank you for trying the best you could to provide for our family. If you were here today, we could sing a rousing chorus of 'Does your chewing gum lose it's flavor on the bedpost overnight?' and bust out laughing. Sorry for being a self-possessed, know-it-all teen....aww....I know you've already forgiven me. Better late than never, right? See you soon. Love, Sis.

No-more-regret-love to all.

maui gallery: 1

I drank Mai Tai's 'til volcano Haleakala looked flat. Can you blame me? It is their state drink, after all.

It was our bucket-list trip. Figured we'd endure the loooong flight time to explore this lovely island.

I could gush on and on, but I think I'll let the photos tell my story. Pour yourself some pineapple juice and dark rum. I'm placing a fragrant lei around your neck in warm welcome. You with me?

We went to Maui to support the Son-in-Law as he competed in this race. It's called xterra, cuz you have to be xxxtra strong to even think about entering one of these events.

Our intrepid athlete as he prepares to face the angry ocean.  We suffered through a tsunami warning the night before. You heard me right.....TSUNAMI.  A long night of evacuations!

The SIL made it through the swim. Now, he only has to bike 5000 miles in the forest and run 100 miles up and down the volcano. Then, he has to open a coconut with his bare hands to complete his test! He's xxxxxtra strong, alright!

This challenged athlete was an inspiration to watch. You go, girl!!

There was plenty of time for a relaxing swim in the pool while Daddy was competing.

Blessedly arriving at the finish line with medal and lei around neck.

Spike, the African crane who lived at our hotel.

Hey, watch it Spike! Baby G is not crane food.

How many folks return from Hawaii with a hair tattoo? Can you spot the typical Hawaiian greeting in Sprout #1's hair? This haircut caused quite the commotion everywhere he went. Wonder how this went over with the cowboys when he returned to West Texas? Love this Sprout to death!

My healing left wrist even played golf with the Texan. Wonderful!

The Middle Sprout and I arose at 3 a.m. to drive up the winding, nausea-inducing road to historic Haleakala volcano to see the sunrise. The name means 'House of the Sun'. The area below the clouds is a massive crater....it's bigger than the island of Manhattan.

The sunrise. Praise be to God! Now I know why the ancients thought of this as a sacred place.

Turn around 180 degrees and I experience the moon setting over the bay. Sublime, isn't it?

I have some other special things I want to share with you. That's why I'm planning a Maui gallery: 2. Keep the Mai Tai ingredients handy, OK?

You don't want to miss out on mysteries like this:

Did I chain myself to the tree so I'd never have to leave the Maui rainforest? Did I want to extract some orange pigment from this cool tree to make the perfect red-hair dye for myself? Was I describing the circumference of my mid-section after downing at least 2 Mai-Tais every day?

Thanks for sharing and letting me re-live my Maui experience with you. I will post part deux real soon.

Mahalo.

Top-'o-the-volcano love to all.

donut quest

His idea was brilliantly simple: then, I got involved.

The event unfolded innocently enough. Sprout #3 wanted a donut-hole tower instead of a traditional groom's cake at the wedding reception. Cool concept and making it happen appeared to be fairly easy and straightforward. We would use the donut tower as a 'display only' piece and we would put fresh donut holes in cute cupcake papers around the bottom of the tower. Wedding guests could easily pick them up and enjoy. Easy-peasy!

The Middle Sprout made a donut-hole tower 'mock-up' before the wedding. We needed to be certain we could recreate it for the reception.

Appears to be a perfectly acceptable donut tower, right?

We both liked the 'mock-up', but we thought it should be a little larger...or wider or something. After showing this photo to some of her friends, comments were made about our tower appearing to be ...well....somewhat phallic. Is that necessarily a bad thing?

Anyhoo, while shopping for the perfect styrofoam shape for our tower, I became inspired. In the floral section of the local craft store, there were styrofoam balls of various sizes. We would construct a donut topiary. No one in the history of weddings has ever had a donut topiary! The Sprout thought a 2 ball topiary would be adequate....but, nooooo....I insisted we needed a giant 3-ball donut topiary. We bought a big pot, some large wooden dowels, and 3 balls of graduated sizes.

In hindsight I realize, sometimes good is good enough. It's fine. Really. No one knows the difference. However, in my quest for absolute donut-tower awesomeness, things began to get complicated. The Middle Sprout was racked with doubt. The Texan was trying to devise a plan to safely construct my grand vision of an outstanding donut topiary. No problem, I said. Took it to my handy-dandy florist who constructed the topiary with a steel rod through the center. He sunk the contraption in plaster and we were good to go.

'Mom....it sure is BIG. You think it will be OK?' The Sprout confessed to losing sleep at night over our ever-enlarging tower. It was morphing into the Washington Monument. I have to give her credit....she TRIED to rein me in. Sometimes, my quest for awesomeness can be overwhelming.

'Have faith Sprout. We are constructing a donut tower for the ages! The bride and groom are gonna love it!'

Armed with the tower and 30 dozen donut holes, we headed for the Texas hill country.

30 dozen donut holes=heaven

The first night in our hotel room, I eagerly began construction. The first grand styrofoam ball ALONE took all 30 dozen donuts and 2 hours of my time. I had a blood blister on my index finger from inserting toothpicks into styrofoam. Ouch.

The beginning of the grand ball.

2 hours and a blood blister later

That's 30 dozen donut holes!

Fell in bed that evening dreaming of donut nirvana. Just needed to order more donuts in the closest town to complete the massive project. The next day, my long-suffering...very bestest friend in the whole world...who would do anything for me...little V...agreed to help with the project. We drove to the bakery where we ordered more donuts. When I asked for our order, the guy at the counter and the owner spoke to one another in loud, accusatory tones...the language was Vietnamese, I think. Seems they had sold our donut holes and only had 4 dozen left. Maybe that would be enough to do the smallest ball at the top....we paid for them and left. What to do now? We needed LOTS of donut holes in a hurry. Walmarts to the rescue!! We raided every last box of their chocolate cake donut holes to cover the center ball.

Little V, the Middle Sprout and her friend J, and I worked on that donut tower until it was blessedly complete. The topiary was listing a bit, but we were undeterred. The creation contained at least 60 dozen donut holes and it was over 4 feet high! It was almost taller than Little V!

This story is getting too long, so I'll spare you most of the details of getting the donut contraption (probably weighed over 50 pounds) to the reception hall. It involved several awestruck young bell-boys loading it into a hotel car to drive the short distance to the venue. This donut Washington Monument took on a life of it's own as it precariously swayed with every careful slow turn of the car. The donut topiary was heavy and becoming increasingly unstable. I sent Miss V into the reception hall for some sort of cart, while I held the swaying topiary in the car. Just as precious Miss V starts for the car with the cart, the skies open up and it begins to pour. A Noah's ark-type of rain. Sheets and sheets of rain and a driving wind to boot. Lucky we had just done our hair for the wedding! We lug the ship's-anchor topiary slowly up the ramp to the reception hall as we are soaked to the bone. We bravely saved the monstrosity from certain destruction several times.

Did you know that wet donut holes weigh LOTS more than plain, dry donut holes??

Sorry for bad photo. Phone pic with very bad back-lighting. We are drenched, but feeling an uneasy sense of accomplishment. I'll post a better photo when the wedding photos come out.

Our creation was leaning so badly from it's car ride and the drenching rain, it refused to stand upright. We worried it could fall over and injure someone at the reception. The Texan to the rescue! He walked (in the rain) to the beach at the nearby lake and came back with some wet sand. We filled the topiary's container with the wet sand and it seemed to stabilize the wobbling a bit. The hotel staff filled the cupcake papers with the fresh donut holes and things were good to go.

Lots of folks took photos of the donut-topiary. I was a bit concerned one of the happy, dancing children on the dance floor would run into the donut table and be severely maimed. An unsuspecting lady tried to eat one of the soggy, stale donuts off the topiary and she was told it was for 'display only'. What a horrible waste of food!, she huffed.

The lesson? I need to calm down. Awesome is not necessarily better all the time. Good is plenty good enough. I should listen to my Middle Sprout. I've told her 5000 times how she was right and why couldn't she 'rein me in'?

I can be exhausting.

But I've got one helluva donut wedding story.

Lots of love to the bride and groom!

Towering love to all.

butterfly

 No, no....not that kind of butterfly!

I'm referring to Puccini's Madama Butterfly presented by Amarillo Opera this weekend at the Globe News Center. For us opera neophytes that would be Mrs. Butterfly, I guess.

There is a show Saturday evening September 29 and a Sunday matinee on September 30, so you have two chances to catch this magnificent undertaking.

I'm not gonna pretend to tell you all the plot intricacies of Butterfly, because I've never seen it. I know it's Puccini...it's dramatic...and Butterfly is a treat visually as well as aurally.

The set is from SANTA FE OPERA. All the people 'in the know' and the technicians declare it is a BIG, impressive set. A '3-trucker', I believe. The set was made possible with a generous donation from a local, opera-loving couple. The structure has the ability to move about the stage. Very impressive. Thank you for this kind gift to our community!

Our beautiful Mrs. Butterfly in rehearsal

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the set and some of the principal performers. I'm always stunned with the talent and impressive sound of these singers. The costumes are sure to be breathtaking, as well.

Aren't these ladies gorgeous?

Don't be surprised if you hear some sad songs....it is Puccini, after all.

So proud of our local Opera Company. Madama Butterfly has been a seminal and historic work for Amarillo Opera.

It's amazing to me that a production of this caliber....with the impressive principals, the gifted singers in our local chorus, the talented conductor and our versatile local symphony musicians can unite to put something so special together in our fantastic Performing Arts Center. It's a monumental undertaking, really.

Bravi tutti! (that means y'all are fantastic!) I'll even throw in a toi, toi, toi for you.***if I had any IDEA what that phrase means***

Time to hatch from your larva stage. You don't want to miss this. It's gonna be EPIC! Call AMARILLO OPERA for tickets.

Winged-love to all.

castoff

I'm feeling kinda naked. **sorry if that conjures unpleasant images**

Yesterday was the big unveiling of my new, mending left arm!!

Sawing off the purple cast.

 The cast was off, and here are the first photos of my liberated wrist.

Free at last......

The arm looked pretty good. Some dead skin and flakiness, but nothing too gross.

Although feeling pretty stiff and sore, the hand gives the 'thumbs up'.

Seven weeks and one day with a cast. Nurse said, 'Do you want to keep the cast?'

Of course! How could I so cruelly discard my beloved purple exoskeleton?

Showed the purple cast to Roxy Doxy.

Doxy: 'It's a shame to throw away something so useful and delightfully smelly. Can't we find a use for it?'

Whadayathink, Doxy?

'We could repurpose the cast as a delightful candle holder? Or, a dog biscuit dispenser?'

'I dunno Doxy. Seems kind of tacky to me.'

'A festive Christmas ornament?'

'A useful head cover for your 5 iron?'

'A toothpaste/toothbrush caddie?'

'Doxy, those are all clever ideas. Maybe we should just leave it in the closet for now until we can agree on how best to recycle the purple cast.'

While Doxy took meticulous notes on possible ideas to reuse the purple cast, I was glorying in washing my face....with BOTH hands. I indulged in a one arm spa treatment with warm water, soap and a washcloth. Followed it up with a liberal dose of lotion. Heavenly.

Here's my new chic arm covering for the next 3 weeks.

Say 'hello' to the lovely black splint!

I'm working through the expected stiffness and soreness. It will take time and a large dose of determination to regain good use of this wrist. Good thing I'm determined and fairly patient. Mainly for now, I'm grateful. Supremely and utterly grateful.

My patience could be wearing thin, however. Caught a glimpse of THIS last evening.

A certain, stubby-legged pooch seems to be preparing costumes for Halloween. It's not EVEN October!

Oh, lawzee. This makes the toothpaste caddie look mighty appealing. help

Celebrating a wristapalooza today!!

Healing love to all.

counting days

Life with the purple cast has gotten easier and I've regained lots of mobility in my fingers and in other parts of my arm. Amazed every day at the healing power that comes from God. So grateful for it, and I wish the same healing power to all those experiencing sickness and injury.

The purple cast has been lifting weights! It started with a 1 lb. weight and it was spotted at the gym today heaving a 7.5 pound weight! It can do shoulder presses, hammer curls and tricep kick-backs. Can't stand to look at the bowl of mush that used to be my pretty-well-defined (for an old gal!) upper arm. The purple cast was unable to lift a gallon jug of milk from the fridge this morning, but look out-it's bound to happen before too long.

Counting the days until purple cast gets sawed off. I know, I know....there's rehab ahead of me, but I'm ready to get to it. Five days, five days.....FIVE DAYS, ELEVEN HOURS!!

Here's how I've been counting down.

Friday night, the Texan and I kept this imp.

who has teeth??

Been feeling really useless as a baby-sitter lately. Baby G is very mobile now and he hasn't missed any meals, if you know what I mean. The purple cast couldn't do a thing for a while. But NOW, I can kinda pick him up and I can change a diaper. Even with two good arms, G can be a challenge. He's coming up on his first birthday. KK loves you, baby G!

This past weekend was spectacular; cooler weather and blessed little wind. Perfection. Took the purple cast out to pull weeds in the secret garden on Saturday. The cast made a lackluster effort to pull weeds, but it was amused by the wildlife.

The butterflies are really loving the lantana, and many of them visit every day.

the handsome black butterfly visitor

While he should have been weeding and working, the purple cast sighted another visitor. Don't know the name of this critter. Do any of you know what these are called?

I call this a hummingbird moth. Guess I should Google the real name.

There were several of these guys buzzing around, while the purple cast and I were weeding. They made us smile.

Decided to cook dinner on the patio, since the weather was unusually outstanding. Grilled steaks, made a crisp salad, and boiled a few green beans (in bacon, of course) for our dinner. While were were dining al fresco, the Texan noticed a visitor.

do you see him?

Fall is the season for tarantulas around here, and folks are spotting them everywhere. Was traumatized when one jumped in my entryway the other night as I was taking the unsuspecting doxy for an evening walk. The Texan saved us and herded the spider outside.

The tarantulas are pretty harmless and it's kinda fun to spy them creeping around this time of year.

Don't ask me where they spend their time during the other seasons of the year.....I've no idea. Hopefully not in my secret garden.

Five days, five days, FIVE DAYS.....10 and 1/2 hours!

I'll let you know how it goes. Probably make you look at pictures, too!

The purple cast is giving all of you a thumbs up.

Rehabilitating love to all.