Five lesser known things about my mom

Sometimes it isn't the big things that are what you remember - sometimes it is the seemingly inconsequential little things. The little neurons fire off at the strangest memory triggers...

1. Mom loved marzipan, something she passed on to all three of her children. Christmas just isn't Christmas without beheading a cute little Marzipan animal or scarfing a selection of Marzipan fruit! A certain offspring, we're not naming names, was severely castigated for eating part of Mom's marzipan pig one Christmas....

2. Mom loved to sing (no, she didn't pass this along! Although we all sang in church choirs at one point or another others probably wished we didn't....) I can remember her singing to us at bedtime when Alex and I were little. My favorite was "Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green. When I am King, dilly dilly, you shall be Queen."

3. Mom loved to garden, something else anyone who knows the infamous Hadden black thumb brigade will tell you she didn't pass along either. At one point Dad gave her a greenhouse, which I loved the smell of. We always had flower beds when I was growing up (I was allowed to grow radishes and my favorite snapdragons which strangely I did not instantly kill.) I can remember the Johnny Jump Ups, the pansies, the petunias, and many, many geraniums. I remember making rose geranium jelly which I still have a yen for. (I also remember the pressure cooker exploding while making apple sauce!) Mom really loved forsythia bushes, daffodils, and tulips as well. And dogwood trees.

4. Mom was the ultimate drama queen. She's probably turning in her urn right now as that was one of her primary criticisms of my wacky great aunt Lucy (her aunt) who was on Broadway and parachuted over Guam with the USO. Nonetheless, it's true. Her flamboyant side had to come out somehow! Thankfully, she was never quite as eccentric as Aunt Lucy who was known to yell at the waiters in a deli for not warming the plates (I remember quite vividly one waiter taking her plate back, grabbing one out of the dishwasher, and returning with a wink....) Mom passed the emoting skills along in various forms to all of us (Sandy faces, "Hunger, thirst, famine" and the like!)

5. Mom liked seagulls, pigeons of the sea. Ick. She specifically liked "Jonathan Livingston Seagull." This, along where her penchant for Helen Reddy, embarrassed and horrified us all. Still, her Mom, who was probably equally horrified, made Mom a needlepoint table of JLS. She also liked "elevator" music. Double ick. There's just no accounting for taste!

It takes a Village to move Ms. Jaime

Jaime officially has quads of steel, after hundreds of trips up and down the three flights in South Boston, moving item after item to the street below.

Jim and I have officially made three shuttle trips between Southie and the new digs in Davis Square, and Jaime's dad made one (the important one, the one with the bed!) Jaime's new room is bigger than anything at Lamont Avenue!

Jared and Cici are on for tonight, with the big heavy items in the pick-up truck!

Jaime plans to spend her Labor Day weekend settling in.

VA

Our friendly VET, Doctor Murphy, has been doing a lot of ADMINISTERING lately to the inmates of Lamont Avenue. Poor Bird had 9 teeth pulled (he was just not very good about flossing for some reason) at great expense and presumably pain as well. The good news is that he was really slowing down and becoming kind of bedraggled, and now, his mouth is pain-free and he is showing some kittenish spunk again at age 15. Bonnie is not faring so well. We emerged from one bout with severe allergies that required steroids, antibiotics, and constant monitoring to keep her from eating her feet, only to end up with a mysterious ailment appearing with some nerve damage to her face. Last time I picked up her "Uroeeze" which keeps her from forming painful crystals in her urine, the vet techs (who now know my voice on the phone and Bonnie by reputation) told me that Bonnie had the second largest file at the clinic in history. We're working on making it the largest file (and since the other dog died we have a good chance.) Bonnie is due for exploratory surgery tomorrow.

As the vet said, "it's really sad she can't catch a break." It's particularly poignant following my mother's death. It's hard accepting that there are things that happen to people you love that you can't fix.

PROC MIXED

Jim and I had the dubious pleasure of co-presenting a "Tech Talk Tuesday" together yesterday at our company. It was kind of like Click and Clack, except about computers and statistical software instead of cars. Anyway, the highlight of the presentation, the purpose of which was to introduce a new computing solution, was the PROC MIXED* brownies.

*statistician in-joke - PROC MIXED is a SAS procedure that does a mixed model.

Things are heating up at Lamont Avenue

We are finally splitting the heating systems, installing a gas furnace for the first floor unit instead of sharing the big old oil burning furnace. Work began Monday, which meant I spent a weekend getting up close and personal with lots of moldy stuff in the basement (boo hoo!) This required a number of incentives. I set as a goal for the weekend 16 giant leaf and lawn bags of garbage. After every 4 bags, I rewarded myself. If nothing else, I needed a break from breathing in that nasty stuff. So, the first reward was the oh-so-desired olive flatbread pizza from Iggy's (oh yum!!!) They only make it on Saturdays, and during lunchtime, so it's pretty rare that I actually score some of the good stuff. The next reward was a glass of Knob Creek, and so on. I achieved my goal, and then some, getting rid of lots of moldy plastic rubbermaid containers, etc.

There were treasures mixed among the trash. One of my finds: Ciel's ultrasound picture!

Locke-Ober, Locke-Ober, send Lobster right over

Our last visit for this season's Restaurant Week was the venerable Locke-Ober for luncheon. Having received the reminder call from the hostess the day before which included the dress code, there was a minor crisis - was farmer Louise and her overalls up to the challenge? Well, yes, but the dressing up was of very short duration and involved stuffing my surgically repaired foot into a pair of Cici's shoes (which very luckily were a size or two too big!) We (I) shuffled over to Winter Place (off of Winter Street, which turns into Summer Street - you have to love Boston geography!) trying not to leave the shoes behind. It must be noted that le TomTom got a tad confused in the little alleys surrounding Locke-Ober and led us into a dead end - but ever intrepid in search of a good meal, we forged on.

Walking into Locke-Ober was like entering a worm hole or time warp. One is transported into an era gone by. Once Jaime had joined us from her office a few blocks away, we were ushered into a cave-like chamber deep within featuring dark red walls and mahogany fittings.

Although the special Restaurant Week menu did not include Locke-Ober's famous Lobster bisque, I managed to get some lobster in by ordering an entree which included lobster and corn fritters. The food was really excellent and despite the very staid surroundings somewhat creative in scope and presentation. It was not (still) a restaurant for the vegetarians and vegans among us!

Dessert featured molten chocolate cake with perfect raspberries (Jaime refused to share these!) and perfect strawberries with lemon sorbet. Delicious!

Cici and I were vastly entertained by the ladies' restroom, which took womb-like to a new level! While the anachronistic fainting couch and vanities remain (with suitably muted lighting for the years-challenged among us) there was a sop to modernity - paper towels (while good quality) instead of cloth to dry one's hands!

Oh Dem 'Bones

Last night, I went to Underbones for a Murder Tuesday.

It was a wildly diverse crowd, standing room only, in for free "Killer Apps" (nope, not the software kind!) and book signings by two local (and famous) authors. I was excited because one of the authors was Linda Barnes, who writes a series featuring a feisty female private investigator named Carlotta Carlyle who lives in Cambridge.

I was happy to get my copy of Lie Down with the Devil signed, and then to have Jim, Jared, Cici and Jaime join me for dinner at Redbones upstairs.

Of course by that time I was stuffed with free appetizers! Still, we all enjoyed dem bones.