What a day. I went to see Dr. Casey for another adjustment on my arm and shoulder. They have been aching for some time and I aggrevated it while out hunting rabbit last Sunday. Guns get pretty heavy after about three hours. He did a LOT of adjusting. I will keep putting cold on it and see if it eases up.

Dick has a cold. His throat has been sore and he started dripping today. These are the same symptoms that I had so we can hope that he heals as quickly as I did.

He did get the tree all down today. I cleaned a couple of cupboards. Because he was sick, we decided late this afternoon not to go to the Symphony, so I hurried up and went to Mass tonight so that I could join the choir. I knew that, at least, two altos had to work and would not be there. We sounded pretty good after all. I was also able to give the Symphony tickets to our friends Gary and Judy Henderson, who used to have season tickets, but did not buy them this year. They did not have plans so were glad of the opportunity.

I took Mom a piece of quiche and she gave us some peach pie. A good trade. The barter system still works. Tomorrow we will have Dick's Chili for Super Bowl Sunday. I think I will make French Pastry for dessert. Very easy dessert but very elegant looking.

French Pastry

Chocolate Instant Pudding
Graham Crackers
Whipped Cream

Make the pudding and whip the cream.

Place four graham crackers halves on a tray. Spread a tablespoon or so of pudding on each half cracker. Place another half cracker on top of the pudding. Repeat for four (I think) layers finishing with a cracker. Spread whipped cream over each stack sealing the stack. Let sit for several hours. Then the crackers are soft enough to cut. Cut in half and serve. Look pretty and tastes great. Makes 8 servings.


Here is a sample of a type of poetry that I learned about at the last writer's club meeting called a Cin Quain.

Puppy
Chubby Happy
Yipping Jumping Licking
Goofy little ball of slopper
Cuddly


Fun to play with.

Love

Mary

ee

Dick made chili today. We will be feasting with a proper meal on Super Bowl Sunday. I fixed an impossible spinach quiche for supper today and it was really good. I had some fresh spinach and a nice mixture of cheeses.

Today, I went to Plymouth to have lunch with the Wells Retirees. I had a grilled cheese. The Dairy Queen in Plymouth has what they call Sheboygan County Fair Grilled Cheese and they are GOOD. I ran into Peg and Stan Payne there today. They are Irish friends. I usually lunch with them on St. Patrick's Day at the Stafford after the Irishman's Walk. Peg said she MAY not walk, but that they are planning on being at the Stafford for lunch and the music.

Chelsea and I had a lovely walk today. It rained off and on today but was dry when we went out. I stopped at Blessed Trinity on the way home for the opening prayers of the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. I did not stay for the whole rosary, because, as I told Deacon Bill Jens, I say my rosary when Chelsea and I go for our walk in the morning. She is quite a holy dog you know.


Mary

Got my hair cut today. Also had choir. Aside from that we stayed home. Chelsea and I had a nice walk this morning. When she had me taking her outside the fourth time this morning, I decided it was time to walk her. She really gets restless when she doesn't get those walks. It is best for me to do it too. My legs stay more limber.

I stopped and visited with Mother before choir practice. We got into talking about news items. She can't stand Bush and was, of course, not impressed by his speech. But one thing that we talked about was this business of the rights of illegal immigrants. I feel that illegal immigrants don't have rights in the sense of getting licenses, buying property or getting an education. Illegal should mean something. That is why we have visas and work permits and, for those who wish and qualify, citizenship. It is a no brainer. Illegal means not belonging here. PERIOD.

Have a good day.

Later


Mary

A cloudy gloomy day today. Dick and I did our grocery shopping today rather than tomorrow, I am not exactly sure why. Then we went over to Discovery World to pay for the day trips for the next year. We are not sure about a long trip at this point as most of them require lots of walking and Dick really does not want that.

I sewed ears on the kitten that I am appliqueing for a quilt. If the kitten is half as cute as the cocker spaniel, the quilt should be adorable. I will have to find a nice home for it.

When Dick and I went to lunch at The Other Place, Mother recalled that at the end of World War II she remembered her brothers coming home from the war and the big party at what was then Fitz's. She could envision her brother, my uncle Noel, dancing around the bar singing "Kiss me once and kiss me twice and kiss me once again." as he kissed every girl in the place. Uncle Noel was a handsome guy. Tall and good looking with black curly hair. I could get a picture of that night from her description and loved the smile on her face.

Mary

My cold is no worse. I took a night time decongestant last night and a day time decongestant this morning. I am also taking vitamin C and gargeling with salt water and actually, I am doing very well.

Four members of the Writer's Club, Jane Kocmoud, Barb Harwood, Rosemary Eigenberger and myself all went to the Milwaukee Art Museum to look at the works of art in their permanent collection to write poems about in their annual The Art of Poetry/ The Poetry of Art Contest. I entered last year. I did not win but it was fun.

This year I have narrowed the art pieces down to five that I saw and liked. They are quite diverse. One is by a Haitian Artist Laurent Casiman called the Crowded Market. The second is also by a Haitian Artist Hector Hyppolite called St. Francis and the Christ Child. The third is by George Inness called Sunset in Georgia. The forth is by Gerhard Richter and is called Breath. The last is by Francisco De Zurbaran called St. Francis of Assisi in His Tomb. You can view the de Zurbaran, under Early European Art and the Richter, under Contemporary art on the Milwaukee art Museum page at mam.org. I have to limit it to three, so we will see which inspire me now that I have time to think about it.

We had the nicest lunch in the Cafe at the Museum. I had a cup of chicken pot pie soup and a half of a club sandwich.

Tomorrow will be a lot less exciting.

Love

Mary

I have a cold. I am fighting it as best as I can because I had bible study and finishing getting the pointsettias off the altar this morning and tomorrow will go to the Milwaukee Art Museum on a field trip with the Writers Club. We are leaving at about 9:00AM and should be back by 4:00 so that I can pick up Market day.

We are going to MAM to pick out the pictures that we want to write poems about for their annual contest. Last year I picked picures of the works of art off of the computer. Should be much better to see them in person then be able to write the poems.

Jeff was telling stories about Dad yesterday. One was really funny. At one point, the DNR said that people could no longer go into the woods and harvest their own Christmas trees. Makes sense actually, but Dad felt that they were taking his rights away. He kept saying that that was public land and belonged to him and so therefore he was going to get his tree. So. He told Jeff that he had to come with him. So, they tromped into the woods out near the Bowser homstead until he found a tree he liked. He make Jeff cut it down and they cut a piece off the top as big as he wanted the Christmas tree to be. Then they started out of the woods. Dad, hobbling along on his cane, would go to the first ridge and look around and then wave Jeff, dragging the tree along to catch up. Then they went on to the next one. They made it and did not get caught, but Jeff was torn between obeying Dad and terror at getting caught. That seemed to satisfy him as he never did it again. He was a stubborn old man all right.

Mary

Rainy warm day. I went hunting as I mentioned that I would. We all met at Leroy's house at about 9:00AM. Jeff was on time. He actually beat Dennis and Don Behr, which was REALLY a shock. We got out to the woods at about 9:30AM and Copper, Dennis's dog, picked up a scent immediately. The rain, not too heavy, kept up until about 10:30 then it stopped and did not start again until we were out. Despite Vic's protests which started at 10:00AM,(Vic is a friend of Dennis and Don and always figures that the sooner we get to the bar the better off we are.) we stayed out until noon and ended up harvesting three rabbits. Don Behr got one and Jason Karls got the other two. Copper ran them for three hours and kept us all on our toes.

We then went to the Wierl Wind at about noon for the annual sausage tasting. The hunters bring samples of their venison sausage and we along with any customers who show up at the bar, even including Copper the dog, taste all the "entries" and rate them as to what is liked the best. It is a blind test. Jeff and I sliced all the samples onto paper plates,labeled with the name of the buther shop or creator on the bottom of the plate. Then Don Behr mixed up the plates and labeled them from A to G in this case as we had 7 different kinds. After all the votes were in about three hours later, the concensus was that the sausage made by Roehrborn's was the best this year. It even beat out the ringer - the Johnsonville Garlic Summer Sausage.

I got home at about 4:00PM. I am really tired and was not hunbry enough to eat supper, but I at some of Jim's Tirimisu (which is excellent by the way, though he is not happy with his sponge cake) and an orange.

Soon I will got to bed as the first two days of this week are REALLY busy.

Take care of YOU this week.

Love

Mary