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Has Clive had results of his tests?  I hope it will

be negative.  He is in my prayers.

Jan

What a lovely surprise, Jo–have a great visit!

Candace

I had a phone call from my FL daughter saying she is flying up on Thursday am for a short visit. I am pleasantly and exceedingly pleased.

I finally finished reading The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. It was a library book group pick and I sure wouldn’t have picked it. It followed the life of The Maytrees from before they married until his death. It takes place in Cape Cod. There are very good descriptions of the characters and what I call flowerly descriptions of the area. It will be interesting to hear what others think of this book. There will be those who liked it I am sure. Now I am looking forward to reading Jodi Picoults latest.

Phyllis,
I got the latest issue of ‘Woman’s Day’ just to read the article by your daughter. (By the way, I love the term “designated daughter.” It explains it all. ) It was excellent! What a loving, compassionate woman she is. I am going to amazon.com and order her book. I want to read the entire thing.

Thank you so much for telling us about this article. You have every right in the world to be so proud of your daughter. She sounds like the kind of woman that I would just love to sit down and have a long conversation with her.

Judith

Good wishes for Clive – we hope it’s just a shadow too.

thanks for letting me know, Darlyne; any else like to borrow the tape?

Jo, thanks for offering to send me the tape but I have a friend here who will tape it and I can get it from her. Happy watching!

Thanks, Jo, for the “heads up” about the MM movie. I told our youngest daughter about it. She is an American Sign Lauguage interpreter, so I knew she would be interested. She has seen some of the controversy about the implants among her clients, and has a high school classmate whose twins have both had the procedure-it worked well with the boy, but the girl has had infection troubles and doesn’t hear very well.

I too wish I could tape one of the two shows that Jo mentioned, but will watch the PBS Kipling movie as y. daughter has t vo and I can watch the CBS movie—-minus commercials! When I go to St Paul to help with kids on Wed. My husband doen’t mind them, commercials, but they really annoy me, when we had only an antena and free tv, it wasn’t so bad, but now we pay for cable and still have to endure “selling”.

66 degrees today, and sunny, and I had a good time with the Presbyterians this morning. Husband Clive met several farmers he knew from the past, and my OB-GYN’s brother and wife attend, Dick Clark, that’s his name, stayed on the family farm while brother Rodney went to med school. Also the editor of our Grand Forks Herald was there. I didn’t recognize him from his photo in the paper, he’s much taller than I thought, someone told me who he was. He’s really into environmental things and loves birds.

Tomorrow Clive has a lung ct scan, there’s a shadow that I pray is just that.

Jacky

Darlyne, I’ll be happy to send you the tape after I’ve seen it.

I will be watching the Marlee Matlin one and wish I could watch both but my second TV is in the kitchen and no comfortable place to sit there. When I got cable they said they couldn’t put cable in my upstairs bedroom. Now I think they could but just didn’t want to bother as it would have taken some time to do. Sigh! Maybe one or the other will be shown again.

PBS is showing My Boy Jack, only son of Rudyard Kipling. Kipling himself is playted by David Haig, his American-born wife is played by Kin Cattrall and Jack is played by Daniel Radcliffe who played the title role in the Harry Potter movies. It promises to be an excellent production, at least according to the write-up in our local TV guide. Broadcast time is 9 pm on PBS.

Also being shown tonight at 9, but on CBS, is Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, Jeff Daniels who is hearing and took a crash course in American Sign Language, and Noah Valencie who truly is deaf. It also promises to be an excellent production. Daniels said, about his role, “You couldn’t just show up on this one. They asked, ‘Does he know sign language? We said, k’Of course!’ (Learning) it was every day for four weeks for me.” The whole program revolves around the question of whether or not, their son who is deaf, should or should not get a cochlear implant. Father says yes, he wants his son to have the best care possible. Mother says no, since she wants the boy the feel he is fine as is he. She wants him to feel normal the way he is. She wonders does the father also think SHE isn’t normal?

After I write Comcast a note about moving into the 21st century and getting a box that will let its customers tape one show and watch another, I shall tape one and go to my second TV which is small and watch the other. I’m taping JACK.

Do any of you who watch care to have a discussion about either one or both of these programs?

Jo

I read about that convention and also was surprised at the crowd they attracted. (I read the local paper’s web page). It would have been thrilling to be there. Actually I think both Democratic candidates are good but of course I do favor one of them and do hope she wins but it doesn’t look too good for her.

Glad you had the chance to go to one of the rallies, Jacky. It has been such an interesting election cycle–for the first time in my lifetime, every state really is involved. Who would have believed Puerto Rico could have a real voice! It would be interesting to get the feel and atmosphere of what we see on TV but I’m way past the time of long lines and crowds.

Candace

Middle daughter and cousin invited me to the ND democratic convention and hear Obama/Clinton. I wouldn’t have gone on my own, but it was very interesting. Also surprizing that they would bother with a small electoral state like North Dakota. My cousin, who lives across the street, and I went into Grand Forks at 1;30, the first speaker was scheduled for 7:30, but we held seats for daughter, Pam, who works til 4, and my sister and her two grandaughters. Pam, got in line outside at 4:30 and finally got through security at the door one hour and 20 minutes later. There was standing room only in our huge Alerus auditorium, and that area was full. It did thin out about a fouth before Clinton spoke, but was great to see that many people interested in a political event.

Only my cousin and I , of our little group, stayed for Hilary’s talk, and we left before the ending as we knew how long a wait it would be getting out of the parking lot.

It amazes me that anyone wants the job, but I’m thankful and pray for those who win the struggle.

I just finished The Secret Between Us, can’t remember the author, and started the Vanishing Act, and relized that I’d read it before. My neighbor keeps a list of all she has read, I wish I had.

We almost got up to 70 yesterday, but its cooler again today and cloudy, but I do see a hint of green showing through our bare tree branches.

Tonight, my sister and I are going to see the play, Bus Stop, at UND. They have a nice Burtness Theater and do a good job.

Jacky

Count me in–after a series of back and forth 40 to 80 temps, I thought surely winter was finally over. I put the down comfort back in its bag and put away winter sweatshirts. Then here we go again. I’ve refused to turn on the heat again. So far no April showers but the low humidity has been nice.

Candace

That’s what our forecaster said too. I’m ready…and I am not particularly fond of hot weather as you all know. But I’m ready even tho we did have a very mild winter here. Other parts of PA weren’t so fortunate.

Take care all,
Jo

Spring is coming back tomorrow after a frosty night tonight. It is hard to tell how to dress when one goes out but I guess thats April.

Good grief – fall is back. Where did spring and summer go? We had frost on the punkin this morning.

Jo

Yesterday was lovely; had my patio slider open most of the day.

Today? Another story. Never got out of the 50s and right now it’s 40 something.

Spring! Bah.

LOL and I hope your days are like my yesterday.

LOL and good for you Phyllis. I too have discovered that I’ve got to plan a bit more than I used to because my mobility “ain’t what it useta wuz” — poor English I know, but truthful.

I’ll look for Woman’s Day, May issue. I haven’t taken it for years but hope it’s on the shelves.

About falling–don’t do that again! Been there, done that, don’t recommend it! In that context, I had to laugh at myself last week. I’ve been on a major reorganizing and cleaning project the past few weeks. I wanted to relocate a lamp but the wall outlet is back under a table I had already placed and loaded with books and files. My first thought was “No way I can get to that plug.” Then it dawned on me–DUH! I’ve fallen four times in the past year, twice in the driveway and twice in the house, and every time I managed to get up, therefore, it should be possible if I plan how to do it. There’s extra satisfaction every time I turn that lamp on.

Candace

Jan I just realized that the name of that book was in your Title.

I read that book by Debbie McComber, 74 Seaside Avenue, and the series itself is quite good. The sequence of books is told by the street address, therefore this one is the 7th in line.

I’ve seen a few large-print books and I can understand how soothing the large print would be.

Everyone take care.
Jo

Jan, what is the name of that first book you read. It sounds interesting. Take it easy and get over the fall—–and don’t do it again.