peter's birthday, river rock's birthday, a new chapeaux, and poems on sticks

I have neglected my blog this week and stuff is backing up in my head.

I worked from 7 a.m. - 11 a.m. this morning and my temptation is to crawl into bed for the afternoon to read and avoid the wind and the housework. I decided to sit down and relax with some words instead of napping and reading.

We went down to Patrick's last night to drop off some wine trip tickets, which was sold out but as of this morning there are two seats available again. People make up your minds.

At Patrick's, I started telling Tom about this show I'm watching, Downtown Abbey, and he corrected me. It's Downton Abbey. Well, I can't help it those Brits can't spell downtown what the hell I thought maybe their abbey was in an urban area. It's interesting and amazing. I keep telling Regis I would love to live like that. They dress fancy, have people to button their cuffs and sweep the crumbs off their laps, and they just get up and walk away from the table without worrying about putting the food away.

My friend, Bob, came to town yesterday. He met another friend of mine, Gil, at River Rock. Bob and Betty both taught in Long Prairie for years and LP is Gil's home town. They had a nice visit about teachers they both knew at the high school. Colleagues and classmates.

Bob brought wonderful gifts, in fact, his arms were loaded when he walked in the door. He does a great job with dramatic tension, telling stories to set up each present.

The first was in a gorgeous, old hat box. It's a vintage (love that word) hat that belonged to his Grandma Anna, who they always called Nana. It's a beautiful chapeaux...in fact, the label says "Christian Dior Chapeaux" I love that. I'm going to wear it with Tom's mom's fur coat and have Regis take a snapshot of me.

The next present was in an L.L. Bean slipper box and also had a great story about stained glass which the present was not but was a set of what they call redneck wineglasses on beautiful Israeli candle holders. The tops, actually Mason jars, have lids which will come in handy when the birch tree starts shedding. The jar lids will be way classier than the Saran wrap I usually use.

And the other present was a set of newly minted Poems on Sticks! I loved the old Poems on Sticks (a joint David Bengtson-Mike Hazard project) and have only three left because when people love them, I have to give them away. So, I was relishing the new Poems on Sticks and thinking how much fun they would be to have at River Rock but thinking, selfishly, that I didn't want to break up MY set, when Bob said he had another complete set in the car that I could use at RRC. Great! They were a hoot this morning and as I said, only a couple people had their anti-poetry deflector shields operational. Anti-poetry deflector shields are typically installed during a person's high school years and it's a difficult process to un-do. Billy Collins says seeing poetry in public helps.

It was like Christmas in April! And Bob, Gil asked me this today: Did he really drive all the way down here from Rockford to see you, Teresa? Then he laughed and said, "Well, you're worth it." And we all laughed. (Gil has a great laugh that I once recognized from across a giant furniture warehouse in Minneapolis.)

Peter, my baby, is 25 years old today. I called and wished him a happy quarter-century. We're meeting for lunch tomorrow at Pappageorge in Mankato.

Regis is a technology lover. He's been playing around with some app that does this:

That's me sitting in my chair (looking a little haggard, I must say) and who in the hell are those tiny people marching around in front of me? Hahaha!

I saw on Facebook that there is an app so you can keep track of the countries you have visited. Really, I don't need an app for that. I don't even need two hands. In fact, I don't even need one hand. How pitiful. Hahaha again! Apps are over-rated.

I have been thinking seriously about the role of technology in our lives. There is a table of regular old farts that come into the coffee shop every day. One fellow always has an iPad open and whatever comes up in the conversation, he rings it right up and shows everyone. Every time his cell phone rings, he answers it. Really, I think unless you are a heart transplant surgeon and you are on call at this very moment, this is unnecessary. 

Next week, this dude will have an ear mullet.

I can hear it now. Yeah, yeah, I'll be home about 11:30. And you need a dozen eggs and a six-pack of Bud?