Very quiet day at the Museum yesterday. Just me and the lead tour guide, and only one tour group all day (but it was about the ideal size, and very engaged). The quiet gave both me and the lead tour guide time to get a few things done.
Easter weekend....Tomorrow I get to visit with a cousin that I haven't seen in a few years. He and his wife have come down from Montana for a few days. Sunday, will be a quiet day at home with my family. The kids are too old for Easter eggs and that sort of thing--kind of sad, kind of not.
Hmm. Q: What is the proper form for saying Grace over a plate of Easter eggs? Spoiler: Click for answer A: We thank Thee for the Gifts which we are about to receive from Thy Bunny.
We are taking a break from our trials today. Tomorrow we will visit Rod's mom and then my daughter and I are coming home to eat ham and chocolate and get drunk. (Sadly, even the grandchildren shun the Easter egg thing. I may hard boil a few and force the issue tomorrow.)
Somehow over the weekend we ended up buying a new TV for the living room. Didn't really need one, but my family room TV got the hand-me-down which is a HUGE step up from what I had in there. Easter Sunday was a bit weird...caught the first church service, went grocery shopping, and then had a pretty nothing kind of day until I made dinner. This weekend we have our final April birthday dinner with my parents and Tristen. I feel like I've been doing birthday stuff all month! It will be nice to have a bit of birthday respite.
This past weekend, my day at the Museum was exhausting. First of all, I'd planned on going in very early: I'd taken this past Thursday off, visiting the Los Angeles County Fire Museum (finally open to the public on a regular basis), and going into the Printing Museum, to get some slugs cast for the mock-newspaper for Apollo Day, and (thinking this past weekend would be Boy Scouts) having my organ lesson a few days early. And as soon as I'd finished the newspaper slugs, and returned the Linotype to the souvenir slug setup, it started jamming. I was on the phone for half an hour to the leading Linotype expert in North America (who may indeed be the leading Linotype expert alive), and accomplished absolutely nothing beyond making myself an hour late for my lesson. So anyway, the plan was to go in early, so that I could be there when he came in. Probably around 8. I got a text from him, just after 6 AM, barely out of bed: he'd found the problem and fixed it, and was working on another issue I'd reported. I still made it in a little bit early, and cleaned the pot, plunger-well, and mouthpiece (which is where the hot metal is forced into the mold; trust me, you don't want YOUR mouth anywhere near it), and found that it was working beautifully. Which is good, because I soon found myself casting souvenir slugs for about 2 dozen people at once, for a pre-arranged group. So with that done, it was quiet for most of the rest of the day, so I went to recast a couple of Ludlow slugs, to fix some typos on a project I was doing for Easter: a nicely printed card of the Collect for Purity (from the Rite One Mass, in the Episcopal Church USA Book of Common Prayer). And I found that the Ludlow was giving me a "short-shot" every time I tried to cast, so short that I had to open up the machine and take the slug out in pieces. So I had to clean it. Which is a Herculean labor in itself. But I managed, and got it back to where it was casting properly, and I got my Collect for Purity cards printed, and handed them out to a few clergy at the various Easter services I attended, starting that evening.
BTW, the idea for Collect for Purity cards was one that kept coming to me every year, during Lent, for a few years now, mainly because some days, using it as a mantra is the only thing that gets me through Lent!
Busy does not begin to cover it. My daughter has been indispensable during this trial with Rod's mom. We were driving home from the Senior Rehab on Thursday when we, by chance, pulled up next to them and I rolled down the window and said, "Let's get drunk Sunday!" To which they answered YES!! Around here two glasses of wine instead of one is about as far as it goes. We started off with an early visit to the Home and were relieved by Rod's sort of adopted sister. (Long story.) So we were able to slip on out without upsetting her. Then on to home where I was cooking a ham and mashed potatoes and gravy. My daughter made her luscious baked beans. In defiance of my grandchildren growing up; I boiled two dozen eggs and set up a dying station. There was a bit of a threat to anyone thinking they were too cool to dye Easter eggs. After dinner my daughter and I took them out and hid them. I dug some old baskets out of the closet and set them to hunting. Of course once they got into it they were running around and competing. Then they insisted on hiding the eggs from the old grownups. It was all silly and fun and took our minds off of our troubles for a while. Then the fun started. My granddaughter started mixing up I do not know what in the kitchen. (I stuck to just a little Kalua in my coffee having not had any for 40 days and 40 nights.) Between all the other adults in the family they emptied my ice maker and had to go out for more ice. We got in some rounds of Sushi Go and a new Scrabble type game and then broke out the Wii. It just cracks me up that they all think it is so old fashioned but fight over the controllers once we start. This was only my grandson's second time drinking and we had to cut him off when he started turning a little green. Everybody else started sobering up to keep an eye on him. It was actually very funny as he is kind of a sober sides and he could not quit smiling and laughing and telling us stories. We had some brownies for dessert. I never got around to making deviled egss so now I have 2 dozen hard boiled eggs in my 'fridge.
This week we look forward to having the 13yo over for the weekend. The family is going to Reno for his brother's jazz band competition. Depending on how things are going with the MIL; we may take the RV out to the Delta for a bit of fishing.
We had a family gathering on Saturday with lots of good food and a smidgeon of wine. Sunday was more of an intimate day with my immediate family. This Thursday-Saturday my Dad and I are going on a little road trip to Laughlin, NV (as I'd mentioned previously). He's really excited about it. He has mentioned four times now that we're going to get drunk on the trip. So, I have this odd feeling that I will be driving home on Sunday with a massive hangover. Ha! It promises to be an interesting trip. My dad is 83 and he doesn't walk very well. He brings a walker or a cane if he thinks he'll have to walk much. He refuses to use a scooter. So, I think I'll bring a bottle of vodka with me and convince him to drink in our hotel room.
On Saturday I have my final birthday dinner with Tristen, Steve, and my parents at Stammtisch's, and I have no idea what Sunday has in store for us. I'm hoping for a quiet day with Steve and the dogs...fingers crossed.
Tomorrow is a Boy Scout Merit Badge Day at the Museum. In its own way, as grueling as last weekend's docent shift. At least I won't be stuck cleaning the Ludlow.
Poop! AFTER getting up at 4AM and fixing my hair and having coffee and finishing packing and having my daughter pick me up at 5AM...……...we sat at the school for an hour. Then they realized they had enough space for all of the kids in the vans and other cars and did not need my daughter to drive. So, I ended up back at home and unable to go back to sleep cuz of drinking coffee. The reason I was going was that my daughter's husband was not feeling well so she was happy to not have to go. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to a break from all the drama around here. My friend lives in Reno and I was gonna call her to have dinner after the performances.
Well, Saturday wasn't nearly as grueling as a typical Boy Scout Merit Badge Day. We weren't as short-handed as we usually are at the Letterpress station. Still, I ended up as the best-qualified person to give the safety lecture (we don't want anybody to end up in Harbor-UCLA Emergency, getting a crushed finger rebuilt; it's not nearly as much fun as earning two Merit Badges in six hours), and I ended up having to make an emergency repair to the shop Linotype: It seems that for weeks, we'd been having trouble with matrices jamming as they enter the assembler, and it had recently gotten a lot worse. Frank (a board member who runs the Lino for special events, because he's far more experienced -- and faster -- than I) noticed that there was a part that had broken off. I couldn't find a spare anyplace accessible, other than by borrowing it from the gallery Linotype. Bill Berkuta (the leading Linotype expert in North America; quite possibly the leading Linotype expert alive) came in, and he couldn't find a spare, either. Hopefully, a spare will turn up before the next special event for which the gallery Lino is needed. Sunday, I spent most of the day in Exposition Park: KUSC was doing their third annual "Kids' Discovery Day" at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, broadcasting live from a table just outside the dinosaur hall, with three of their jocks (Brian Lauritzen, John Van Driel, and newcomer Jennifer Miller) doing a "meet-and-greet" when they weren't announcing. And the California Science Center is doing a special exhibition on dogs.
