short update for Monday

The weekend was a little gray. Clouds and rain Saturday, then cloudy all day Sunday with more rain. I'm definitely in the mood for a little more springtime. Besides, there aren't many blossoms for the horticulture exhibition.

The Arkansas Flower and Garden Show is this weekend. I'm helping out by organizing the volunteers. It's fun and I get to talk to people I hardly ever see. Of course, there are lots of changes to the schedule. One person is going to a grand-daughter's christening that weekend. Another was scheduled for a fishing trip. Alas for him, the rivers here are in spate and floating would be hazardous, not to mention no fun. That sort of thing.

A new helper has come on the scene. Shaquira, the cat a friend gave Fran has decided that the pointer on my screen is Very Interesting. She hunted it for about fifteen minutes this morning. Naturally I helped by moving the mouse around so she could track the little arrow on the screen.

Now, I have to get back to work on the volunteer schedule. The night before we start setting up, there is a dinner for the vendors. I'm bringing a dessert... strawberries and angel food cake. It's really easy and pretty yummy.

If someone wishes, I'll post the recipe here.

Just when most of the snow had melted off the streets, it started again. These are photos taken around 1530 hours, local time.

Superbowl Party

Here I sit, in a hotel room (with wifi) watching the Superbowl on an excellent television. It's a good game and I enjoyed The Who halftime show.

So why am I alone? This afternoon, I watched a wonderful presentation at Washington University in St. Louis. Their women's soccer team took second in their division and the women's volleyball team won the national division III championship. None of these beautiful women, who I have been supporting for over 20 years expected to see me. They were very sweet and one invited me to the sophomore suite for a Superbowl party.

I had to refuse. Each of them has family and friends their own age. I'm sure that the presence of a quiet, old man would add nothing to their enjoyment... and probably decrease it. I've noticed that their exuberance is somewhat restrained when they know I'm around. I'm taking nothing from this day for them. These are women that I have learned to love. I can enjoy this game (and the commercials) by myself tonight and think fondly of them having a rowdy good time. That's better.

I wish I had some pictures of the team to post. But mine have not been sent to me yet. All of you would agree that this is a group of lovely people. In addition to their physical talent and appearance, they have a superb intelligence and are highly disciplined. While their course load is distributed pretty much the same as the rest of WU's student population, their GPA is outstanding. They are just a pleasure to know.

Heck. I've forgotten which superbowl team I wanted to win.

Oh yes. I went to Whole Foods and bought a gourmet set of game noshes for one. Delicious.