Tired

The whole experience of dealing with Mom on Tuesday evening was extremely upsetting to all of us. Saul and I both slept fitfully Tuesday night. He had nightmares about his mother, sister, and brother-in-law as he did for a while when his uncomfortable situation first occurred. Unfortunately, as rational as the mind can be about a situation, in dreams the subconscious takes over. I also had bad dreams, though more non-specific. Since I wasn't sleeping well anyway, I arose and wrote my blog yesterday in the wee hours of the morning as I am today and was able to head off the girls at 7:30 a.m. when they came to wake us. Saul was up shortly after that anyway.

When Mom joined us in the kitchen during breakfast, she waved me off with her hand when I wished her a good morning and wouldn't speak to me. Saul got the same treatment. She took her pills, drank some orange juice, and then made her oatmeal and left it sitting on the table and went back to her room. She didn't come back to eat her oatmeal until we all had left the table to get out of our pajamas. Saul and I decided we should get out of the house for most of the day. He checked the Net for activities while I was on the phone speaking to various people who called me in the morning--Roxy, Leslie Fine, and Adele.

Leslie discussed Mom's resistance to having someone stay with her for the two weeks and suggested that perhaps a relative or someone else known by the family could stay and keep an eye on her. The real issue is her diabetes and the fact that falling asleep and not eating for an extended period of time (even 6 or 7 hours during the day) could send her into a diabetic coma. I told Leslie that if that option had been available, I would not have contacted her. I asked her not to count us out yet while Ken, Adele and I work on the situation. She has been understanding.

We had a number of errands to do. I needed to return a few of the shirts I had bought at Marshall's in DC which had been mismarked as far as size. Saul needed to pay a visit to Chestnut Hill College to deliver his signed contract and other papers having to do with his medical plan. The girls were very impressed with the castle-like appearance of the college and wanted to go down every hallway to see where it led. We humored them for a while and also introduced them to some of Saul's colleagues and friends who made a fuss over them and plied them with lollipops.

By the time we finished, it was lunchtime and we took them to the King Buffet in Plymouth Meeting Mall so that they could eat their fill of sushi and ice cream, their favorite foods. The buffet is very inexpensive and we definitely get our money's worth in the beautiful assortment of sushi. We had planned to take a trip to the Sturgis Pretzel Factory in Lititz for the afternoon, but realized at lunch that the girls were too tired to stay awake on the ride home and we were just as exhausted. They both took a two-hour nap and so did we. Mom's door was closed when we arrived home and we decided not to disturb her. It appeared that she had eaten lunch. When the girls awakened us at 4 p.m. we pushed ourselves out of bed to get in some time at the pool. Wednesday afternoons are for clay and Sami lives for clay. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, the clay teacher was getting ready to finish up. They had to content themselves with the pool. Sami decided to try to pass her deep-water test. One of the lifeguards, Amy, who has just been wonderful with the girls, was available to test her. She didn't pass mainly due to a lack of coordinated technique. We arranged with Amy to give Sami some private swimming lessons when she is available at $15 for a half hour.

Ken called on my cell while we were at the pool to discuss the situation with Mom and for once seems stymied as to how to proceed. I am sure he will come up with a plan, though, and implement it in some way. His great strength lies in doing just that.

We returned home by 6:15 p.m. and I helped the girls shower while Saul showered and got dressed to drive to the synagogue for a board meeting. Jerry and Betty Weiss, whom he was driving to the meeting, arrived early and met the girls as I was preparing dinner. While I was helping them shower, Mom came into the room to ask if they had had dinner yet. I told her I would be preparing dinner when I finished with them. We had leftover soup and fish and I made some tortellini as well. Mom chatted casually through dinner as though nothing had happened. I can't tell if she has forgotten her anger, has decided she has won her point, or has received a "dressing-down" on the phone from Adele or Ken.

Ari called during dinner wanting to discuss the previous night's meeting and I told him I would call back later. He had an interesting day as he had to sneak into his office through a garage entrance. There had been a bomb threat at the World Bank which is close by the building where he works near the White House. The authorities had closed off a three-block radius while they investigated for several hours, but he was able to get back in by accessing a garage that was just outside the closed off area. I had promised the girls a movie night after dinner which meant curling up with me in my bed to watch The Jetson's movie I had recorded for them on TiVo. Then, I sent them to their room and read them another chapter of Samantha. Sami called Alex on her cell phone and found out that Jessica had bought a new car, a hybrid Mazda. I will get more details today, I am sure. Izzy spoke with him, also. By the time I finished tucking them in at 8:30 p.m., I was too tired to clean up the dishes, too tired to finish the brisket, and too tired to call Ari back. When Saul returned at 10 p.m., I awoke briefly, we spoke a few words, and I fell back asleep.

It is 5:30 a.m. and now that my blog is finished I will try to go back to bed for two hours. Then, I hope to clean up the kitchen and finish the brisket. After that, who knows?

Monday and Tuesday at Beachcombers

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Monday morning was spent shopping to replenish our diminishing food supplies. We had just enough milk for Mom to make her oatmeal and the girls to have cereal. Saul took the breakfast detail so I could catch a few more winks after blogging until 2 in the morning. You Tube was not cooperating. From now on, if I post a blog before it is finished, I will place an "under construction" sign at the top until it is completely finished. I was afraid of losing my postings from Ari's because his network shuts down every so often, so I kept on publishing all through the process. Some of you may have seen an unfinished blog from Friday because it took a few hours to completely get it together.

We spent the entire afternoon at Beachcombers Swim Club. They had just sent out an e-mail saying that the club was having a financial struggle and there was buzz among the regulars about it because a piece of the land had been sold off and is in the process of becoming a strip mall. Yesterday, we heard that things are okay for this summer, but its survival into the future is in question. We have only been members for three years, but for some, this is a summer institution that has been a major part of their lives.

Beth joined us for dinner Monday evening. I had bought a beautiful piece of halibut at Costco that I thought we would grill, but Saul was too tired so I pan steamed it with shallots, lemon and fresh herbs from the garden. I used up my potatoes that had been around for a while by making potato, leek and corn soup and warm potato salad. Beth was freaked out because over the weekend, her german shepherd, Darcy, had learned to hunt successfully and had killed a large groundhog that she described as not even fitting in her trash bag. When Saul went out to water our potted plants before dinner, he heard Beth shriek and went running over. Darcy had pounced on a rabbit and killed it almost immediately as soon as Beth let her out of the house. Beth loves all animals. Her two dogs were the neediest in the pound when she adopted them. This is very upsetting to her, but Saul and I are celebrating the fact that Darcy has learned to hunt and we might actually have a garden again with real tomatoes on plants that have not been nibbled to the nub. We finished our meal with ice cream and let the girls make their own sundaes. Everyone went to bed early.

Yesterday morning was spent unpacking and cleaning up. I had taken the whole brisket from Simon's Kosher Meat out of the freezer to defrost. I separated the two cuts and pot roasted the first cut. The second cut went into a pot to boil and will become two dishes--beef and barley soup, and barbecue beef. Once sliced and finished today, I will freeze everything to take with us for our two-week vacation in Ocean City, NJ.

I promised the girls we would take them to the pool if they napped. They have not been waking us up before 7:30 a.m., but I have no idea, now, what time they awaken and begin watching t.v. in their room. They seem pretty ready for a nap by 12 or 1 p.m. They both slept for about 2 hours and we took them to the pool for an hour. Sami decided not to swim and enjoyed herself with the Play-Doh activity that was ongoing through the afternoon.

My brother, Ken, arrived at 5:30 p.m. bearing three large pizzas to await our 6:30 p.m. appointment with Leslie Fine of Fine Care to discuss live-in help for Mom while we are on vacation. Adele joined us a few minutes later with her granddaughter, Brenna, so that the cousins could play together. Then Beth joined us, and then Randi, Ken's wife. As usual when we get together, we had a great time. When Leslie arrived and began her pitch at the kitchen table, we were all impressed except for Mom, who was feeling much better and therefore was annoyed at the slightest hint that she might not be able to take care of herself while we are away. The expense is very great--$225.00 per day for a live-in person and because Abington Hospital had not thought Mom needed any specialized nursing care when she was released from the hospital, none of it will be subsidized. Eventually, we all had to stop pushing Mom to accept this situation and Ken offered to have her over to his house for the two weeks where she will be on one floor and have a bathroom to herself, but that is unacceptable to her also. We still have a week to discuss this, and when Leslie talked to Mom privately, she felt that she might come around. If her strength returns, maybe all this will be okay and she will be able to fend for herself. Here's hoping!

2008 Caribbean Carnival and Bhutan

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Some time after Ari finished work on Friday, we picked him up at a celebratory cocktail party at PS 7, an upscale restaurant not far from his office. For dinner, we decided to revisit a restaurant we had loved on Larry's last visit to DC, Georgia Brown's. Ari was extremely pleased with the results of the meeting (which btw, only began with his co-workers at Starbuck's before moving across the street into corporate headquarters, silly me), and had partied so hearty on free drinks at the cocktail party that Saul needed to drive. Since Ari needed no more to drink, I had a Peach Bellini while we waited for 20 minutes in the very pleasant bar area for our table. The food was even more delicious than we had remembered and the service even more delightful. The waiter packed up a nice tray of their delicious corn muffins and biscuits for us to have for breakfast. Ari, as happy and poised as I have ever seen him, treated us to dinner.

The Caribbean Carnival, which we attended last year also, passes within two blocks of Ari's condo. It was even bigger, better and more colorful than last year. Around 11:30 a.m., we took some beach chairs and settled into our usual spot and found that the judges stand had been moved this year to a point only a few yards away. This allowed us to get some great photos and movies as performances took place in front of the judges stand. There was even one performance of which we managed to catch a few seconds before the judges ran out to stop it as "parade inappropriate." Considering the tenor of this celebration, that is pretty inappropriate as you can judge yourself--nothing really pornographic, though. The weather, which had gone from hot and sunny to dark and threatening in the space of two hours, held off raining on the parade.

One of the less colorful photos in the slideshow is the bald-headed mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty, throwing some beads to us. Ari is very proud of the fact that not only did he take the photo, but he caught the beads as well.


It was very difficult to choose from among all the wonderful photos and videos we took, so I have included a few short videos to give the flavor of the dancing, culture, and steel drum bands.

At the beginning of all this celebration, Adele called on Saul's cell with some rather bad news. The EKG had shown that Mom has a slight leak in her mitrial ventricle. It is not an emergency room situation, but she needs to see a cardiologist for further examination right away. We are hoping it can be handled with medication. The condition is probably age-related. There was no need to be home any earlier than planned.

We spent the afternoon admiring our photos and resting up from the heat. For dinner, we consulted the new issue of The Washingtonian, which contained their recommendations for the Top 100 Cheap Eats. We chose a Chinese place in Rockville call Michaels Noodles and it was both incredibly delicious and incredibly cheap. Dinner for the three of us was $35. Ari was thrilled because he had been missing the home-style Chinese food of Hunan Homes in Los Alltos, CA, and now can get his fix within a half-hour drive. After dinner, we decided to go see a movie in Rockville, but the movies we were interested in seeing were all beginning an hour later. While we were waiting, we took a stroll around downtown Rockville, where a large crowd had settled into the town square to see Bee Movie on a large outdoor screen. Saul and I had seen it and deemed it ho-hum. Ari wanted to see it, but didn't want to sit on the concrete benches or grass in the heat. The town center has recently been turned into a very, very upscale planned neighborhood in the style that is becoming so popular now with twenty and thirty-somethings. The pendulum is beginning to swing back to the type of urban, walk-to-the-corner ice cream parlor, play with the kids down the block type of neighborhood in which I grew up. This generation appears to be moving away from the suburban, half-acre lawn, high maintenance, drive-to-the-mall type of existence to which we all aspired and I have actually achieved. By the time we returned to the theater, I decided I was too pooped to see a movie. We were glad we had not stayed because within minutes we heard on the radio that there was a severe thunderstorm warning for the exact area we had just left. The sky became black with clouds, but then they followed us back and we arrived just as the lightning show was beginning. I immediately fell asleep and was only vaguely conscious of the rain pelting down.

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This morning, we slept late. Saul and I finished packing and we all decided to make a brief visit to the Folklife Festival taking place on the National Mall. Larry's sister, Susan, and her husband,Ted, visited Bhutan last year with a tour, and Matt Lauer of the Today show was there last year on day 3 as part of his "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?" tour. I doubt if I will ever get a chance to visit, but it would definitely be on my Top 10 list. Although we could only bear the 90-degree temperatures for a little while, we were able to absorb a brief taste of the pleasant and exotic nature of Bhutanese life and crafts. I am dying for a pair of those boots!

When the heat became too much to bear, we headed for a favorite breakfast spot of ours, also on the 100 Cheap Eats List, called Hollywood Cafe East in Wheaton, MD. We drove back to Ari's after brunch, loaded the car, and headed for home.

When we arrived home at 5:30 p.m., Mom was asleep and Jess and Alex were anxious to get on the road to avoid a storm. When they left, Mom awoke feeling okay and I made us all salami omelet sandwiches on whole grain toast, helped the girls shower, and read them the next chapter of Samantha, by Anne West Strawbridge, the first "grown-up" non-picture book I had ever read as a child. Then, Saul (who had cleaned up the kitchen) came in to tell them a story about how Shmuel had lost his third tooth. Sami lost her loose tooth over the weekend, but saved it to show us before putting it under her pillow this evening for the tooth fairy.

I hope this coming week will be as satisfying as the last one. I am worried about the assessment on Tuesday and what the doctor's will say about Mom's condition.

Baltimore and DC

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I am delighted to report that I am writing this blog from Ari's dining room table in DC. Mom has been okay. They sent her home after her EKG at Abington Hospital and so far, no news is good news. We also were able to arrange coverage for her most of the time we are away. Adele took her back to her house after the EKG and gave her dinner. Afterwards, Beth had come over after work and brought her home to sleep. Jamie picked her up yesterday and went with her to lunch with my brother, Ken, whose business is only a few miles away. After that, Jamie dropped her off at Adele's again. Ken told me he would be responsible for Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday until we arrive home. My sister and brother have really come through for us, although I know that things are difficult and complicated for them as well.

In addition, with Aunt Ruth's help, we have managed to convince Mom, "sort of," to allow us to try to arrange live-in help for her for the two weeks we will be on vacation in Ocean City, NJ, with the kids, and possibly beyond the vacation. We contacted an organization called Fine Care, which has been advertising locally for quite a few years, and who provided wonderful care for our friend Carol Shackmaster's stepmother, Sophie Beilan, of blessed memory, at her home when she died of cancer in her late 90's. In her early 90's, Sophie traveled with her synagogue choir to perform in Israel. She was a wonderful lady. Many years ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a party for her and my uncle, Stefan Strauss, of blessed memory, when they were honored during Simchat Torah by Adath Jeshurun. I have scheduled an assessment with Fine Care to take place at my home on Tuesday evening. Adele and Ken have arranged to be present. The whole situation is something about which I have mixed feelings just as Mom does. Having a stranger moving into your home feels like having someone arrange a marriage for you. It could turn out to be a wonderful arrangement, or it could be a nightmare. When we built our home 16 years ago and combined households to care for my father (who died the month before the house was completed), we agreed that should Mom need nursing care, we would see that she received it at home. I have had the luxury of working at home for myself for the last 33 years, 11 of them catering (Senders Catering) and 22 of them in desktop publishing (Details & Designs). We always assumed that it would be cheaper to provide care at home than in a nursing facility, but that remains to be seen.

On a happier note, we spent Thursday morning packing and preparing for our trip (even though we were not sure then that we would be going) and headed off to the swim club with the girls. Around 5 p.m., we had dinner at the snack bar there, Boca Burgers with bleu cheese sauce and fries. Then we headed home for showers. The girls dressed in their pajamas, set up their DVD player in the back of the car, and we left around 6:45 p.m. for Baltimore. We took the long way there which involves Route 202 to Route 1 and then over the Conowingo Dam. The trip takes an extra half hour that way, but it is usually a scenic, leisurely drive compared to the 2-hour I-95 Route. Unfortunately, it was not leisurely enough. Saul was pulled over and given a $90 speeding ticket for doing 69 in a 55-m.p.h. zone just before we were about to make the right turn in Bel Air, MD. Izzy, who has enough chutzpah for a 4-year-old to fill two adult Hell's Angels, was annoyed that the policeman dared to pull us over and make her late to see her mommy, and she let him know it while he was at our car window. In addition, she kept pointing out to him, after I had explained to her why we had to stop, that everybody else was going much faster than her Saba.

Jessica had returned a little earlier from her latest adventure in weight-loss boot camp when we finally arrived around 9:15 p.m. We kissed the girls goodnight and headed to DC arriving around 10:30 p.m. Ari had our comfy sofa-bed from IKEA all made up and ready for us. The next morning, we rushed to leave at 8:00 a.m. so that Jessica could leave for work on time, but she called as we were preparing to leave to say that Alex's plane was arriving early and that she was leaving with the girls to pick him up herself before going to work. That gave us a chance to drop Ari at work before heading out for Baltimore. Alex, workaholic that he is, had planned to go into the office that day. When we arrived, he began to show us some of the wonderful items he had brought back from Israel. There is one that we think is particularly special. Years ago, at a house sale, we had purchased a Megillat Esther for a pittance that was beautifully illustrated. When Saul's father was too ill to go to synagogue to hear the Megillah read, Alex and Jessica brought it to his bedside and they all read it together. Alex purchased a beautiful silver and wood casing to house the scroll. When I asked him how he knew it would be a perfect fit, he told me he had become so familiar with handling it over the years that he just knew. When I get the opportunity, I will photograph some of the items and the Megillah and put them up on the blog. The place where most of the items were purchased is Yad L'kashish (Lifeline for the Old), which employs the elderly to make its products and uses its profits to benefit the elderly in Israel.

Around 11:30 a.m., Alex went to the office and we took the girls into Baltimore to Port Discovery, a children's museum that turned out to be one of the best we have ever visited. Just before the policeman had stopped us, I had noticed a billboard advertising a new "Robots" exhibit there. When I asked Jessica about it, she said she had heard good things about it. That was an understatement! We found street parking, but the signs were so confusing that we flagged down a mounted policeman who was going by on a very large horse to see if we were parked legally. Even he wasn't sure, but he advised us to go for it. We stopped for a Mexican lunch across the street from the Museum at a restaurant called "Howl at the Moon." The place was practically deserted for lunch, but seems like the bar crowd in the evening is what keeps it hopping the rest of the time. They had a children's menu, however, and were very accommodating. The food was good. 

We decided to buy a $95 one-year family membership at the museum. Regular admission is $11.50 per person over the age of two. If we visit twice, we will have gotten our money's worth and we had so much fun, I am sure we will visit more than twice. We started at the top, the third floor, with the robots exhibit. One activity involved tables of interlocking colorful robot parts that could be assembled and then plugged in to motorize them. There is a huge climbing construction that radiates out to all the floors in various contraptions from the ground floor to the ceiling of the building. There was a waterworks room that had all kinds of interesting and imaginative installations to teach about water and pipes and sinking and floating objects. One water table held Legos with which to construct boats to see if they would float. What could be better for a child than water AND Legos!

There was a mystery room where kids entered a dark tunnel and crawled around in the darkness before emerging by climbing up into another room. Izzy held onto the leg of a little boy who took a shine to her and mentored her through the journey. After that, she went through herself over and over again. She took Sami, who is afraid of the dark, by the hand and tried to encourage her through, but Sami pulled away from her and came back out. When we were tired of chasing them around, there was a play 50s diner room where adults could sit at diminutive red leather booths, order from a menu and have play food delivered to them on trays by their children. There was a cash register with play money, a play refrigerator, stove and sink, and a jukebox. We had to coax the girls out of there eventually because their play kitchens at home and at our house are among their favorite toys. Jessica asked us to be back by 5:00 p.m. so we left a half hour to make a circuit around the second and first floors to see what we had missed. There were wonders too numerous to mention any one of which could fill a whole day. No more worries for us about what to do on a rainy day in Baltimore! We showered the girls and helped them dress, left them in the care of Alex who came home from work first, and headed back to Washington.

We picked up Ari at the office, filled his Prius with gas, and drove over to a new shopping facility that has reasonable underground parking near his condo. We spent an hour wandering around Best Buy,  Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I was really pleased to find gardening gloves for children at Target and a little beach chair shaped like a giraffe for Izzy that she had been coveting since she had seen one at the swim club. The movie, Persepolis, had just been released on DVD and was for sale at Best Buy. We thought the movie was amazing when we saw it together on our last trip into DC and Saul had been waiting for it to be released on DVD so that he can show it to his Middle Eastern studies class at Chestnut Hill College.

We put our purchases into the car and walked across the street to have dinner at "The Heights" (meaning Columbia Heights), which is at the border of Ari's neighborhood, Petworth. The place is very gothic-looking, but its huge windows keep it from being overly dark and brooding. We had grilled rare tuna with sweet chili sauce and jasmine rice, horseradish-coated tilapia over a giant spinach-stuffed portobello mushroom and crab cake with mashed potatoes. All our generous portions were extremely well prepared, nicely presented, fresh and tasty. The complimentary salads were mixed greens with jicama, beets, and grape tomatoes in an orange vinaigrette. Delicious! We considered ordering a house-made pitcher of either red or white sangria, but after that kind of day, I was afraid I would just slide right under the table after a glass or two. Saul and Ari opted for beer, and I ordered blueberry lemonade. We were very pleased with the check which, by DC standards, was very reasonable.

I stopped at Marshall's as we headed back to the parking lot because I had forgotten to pack a few shirts that I had planned to take with me. I bought two nice tees and two blouses. By 10 p.m. I was sound asleep. Today, after we dropped Ari off at a Starbucks downtown (of all places!) for an important meeting, we are just hanging around the house, catching up on email and blogging. Jess, Alex and the kids are off to Cranberry, NJ, for a weekend with Elaine and Maury. When I spoke with Mom this morning, she was in good spirits. All is well with everyone. We are waiting to see how Ari's work day pans out before we decide what to do about dinner. I am really enjoying just hanging around here, blogging at the dining room table, and gazing out the window.

Samara's Corner

We have encouraged Sami to keep a journal of her own while she is here at "Camp Bubbie and Saba." The following is what she has written so far (with some corrected spelling and grammar). The part Sami enjoys most is the drawing. We hope to have more entries and drawings from her as the summer progresses.
16 June 2008
Today I jumped off a DIVING BOARD! I rode my bike, too. Izzy did this, too! I met a girl named Maya. I played with her at the pool.

17 June 2008
Today I saw someone feed two big fat hippos, and I saw a lizard named Spike and a giant tortoise. We even saw a gorilla. We went to the petting zoo, too. Also I saw some snakes, crocodiles, and frogs. I woke Bubbie up at 5:00 in the morning.

18 June 2008
Today I went to see stars called the Mango Men who are really neat because at the end they shoot t-shirts with foam blasters.

19 June 2008
Today I went to the pool and met three new friends--Loran, Amy, and Georgia. And I went to see Curious George and I jumped off a diving board. We went to the pool in Gigi’s car and I had a mixture of Shredded Oats, Koala Crisp, and Honey Nut Cheerios.

22 June 2008
I went to the pool and to the William Penn Inn because of Irv’s birthday! I played sharks and Marco Polo. At the William Penn Inn, I watched the chef make omelets.

The Best Laid Plans

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It looked like a great day for swimming. I had just finished writing the previous blog at 7:30 a.m. when the girls came to wake us, so I was able to head them off and let Saul sleep a little later this morning. At breakfast, Izzy said that Mom had been coughing a lot and we should check on her. I decided to knock and go in and found Mom at her desk going through some papers. She said she had awakened early and had already had orange juice and water and had taken her pills, but had not yet made her oatmeal. I was encouraged because she seemed really good and strong this morning. I offered to make her oatmeal and she took me up on it and said she would join us in the kitchen in a few minutes. She ate all the oatmeal along with fresh blueberries this morning and seemed to be fine. After about a half hour with the girls, she went back to her room. I was feeling very happy. I planned to make a trip to Trader Joe's in Valley Forge to put in a supply of prepared soups that Mom had requested because they are in cartons that are easy to open, pour, and can be easily microwaved in a bowl. They also don't require any chewing and come in many flavors. When we are gone for a few days, she mostly eats oatmeal with fruit, yoghurt, and soup supplemented by snack foods such as peanut butter filled pretzels and whole grain crackers.

I called Roxy early this morning thinking perhaps we could meet after I shopped at Trader Joe's and we could have lunch at King of Prussia Mall with the girls before going off to the swim club. She declined, but as we were talking, the whole plan fell apart anyway. Mom began to urgently call me from her bedroom. I immediately hung up and went in. She was sitting in her easy chair as white as a sheet. She said a strange feeling had come over her and she felt very, very afraid. She seemed very frightened and miserably uncomfortable but was not able to articulate what was wrong. I brought her some orange juice and insisted over her objections that she sip some. She seemed very lucid and was physically moving as normal. I held her hand, patted her knee and we talked for a while. I told her I didn't know what to do for her and she had no suggestions. I asked if she wanted me to arrange for her to go to the hospital again to have her levels checked and she was vehement in insisting she did not want to go. My brother happened to call and she spoke to him a bit. Again, I decided not to send her to the hospital because she is having an EKG done at 10 a.m. tomorrow. After about 10 minutes of discomfort, she was feeling better. It is very uncharacteristic of her to feel frightened and that alone was very disturbing. I told her that I could and would cancel my plans to go to Baltimore if she was not well. I let Jess and Ari know that there might be a change of plans depending on how she feels. She was fine for the rest of the day.

With all this going on, we did not leave the house until 11:30 a.m. when I was fairly sure she would be okay. We programmed her cell phone with speed dial to each of us and put a sticker on the back with who each number represented. Sami decided she would like to have lunch at Bahama Breeze when I gave her a few alternatives. She still has memories of the fun we had at Bahama Breeze in Orlando when we were visiting Disney World a few years ago. When we left the restaurant, Izzy was carrying her leftover pizza in a circular box on which the waitress had drawn a palm tree. Izzy loves palm trees ever since our trip to Hawaii. Before we left, she had colored in the palm tree with the crayons provided. As we headed for the door, a manager spotted her and asked her if she would like a shopping bag in which to carry her box. She was charmed and thrilled by the serious attention she was paid. As we were going out the door, she sighed and said, "I really love this place!" We could have been the best commercial ever for Bahama Breeze. The food was great, too!

At Trader Joe's, a little way down the road, there was a "find the puppy" contest for kids. While Sami was explaining to me that they were supposed to find a puppy somewhere in the store to win a prize, my eye fell on a little stuffed black and white puppy hanging over one of the signs. That entitled each of them to a "delicious" lollipop. We bought the soup and some other items and headed back home. By 2:00 p.m., we were all exhausted and Sami seemed under the weather. She sounded a little hoarse and said she wanted to go home and get in bed. Izzy was beginning to change into the little monster she becomes when she is tired or hungry. When we arrived home, Mom was sleeping peacefully and had eaten the lunch I readied for her. We all took a long nap. We had a choice of three different concerts in three different parks this evening. We chose the Elvis impersonator over a blues swing band and a name with no further explanation. I had the brainstorm to make "Toad in the Hole" for dinner using a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut the hole out of the whole grain bread. The kids and Mom were all charmed and ate every bite. Saul wound up actually executing the meal as I was on the phone with Ari through most of it.

After dinner, Sami was acting lethargic, which could have been that she wanted to lay around and watch t.v., but she also felt a bit warm to us. We stopped at the nearby Rite Aid to purchase a thermometer and took her temperature in the car, planning to return home if necessary. Luckily, her temperature was 98.2 so we continued on to the concert. The girls really got into it participating in an "America the Beautiful" number and receiving ribbons draped around their necks. Towards the end, "Elvis" stopped singing for a moment to pose especially for Sami to snap his picture.




All our plans are up in the air for now as we see from minute to minute how everyone is feeling. Luckily, we have been able to squeeze all the good minutes out of the day that we possibly can.

Wm. Penn Inn

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Sunday morning, a brunch had been scheduled by my sister at the Wm. Penn Inn in honor of both Irv and Fran Small's birthdays. This friendship goes back many years. Irv had been a childhood friend of my brother-in-law Larry. When he finished his tour of duty in Viet Nam, we were introduced for the first time. Saul was doing his service at the time in the Naval Air Reserve and I was spending a lot of time at home doing nothing. Irv and I began joining Adele and Larry and their friends to go out on occasion, although I let him and everyone else know that it was to be a platonic relationship. Irv would have liked it to be more than that at the time, but I wanted to marry Saul, and though we had a great time flirting with each other, nothing ever happened that either of us regretted.

Eventually, when Saul was home on leave, he fixed Irv up with Jardena, an Israeli girl he had met at Gratz College while taking classes there. It was a blind date and I remember Irv asking me to describe her. As I began describing her physical characteristics, I remember suddenly realizing how similar they were and eventually telling Irv that she could have been his sister. At that moment, I realized how terrific a match it would become. They married the following year and eventually moved to Walnut Creek, California. They have raised a son, Ron, who is an independent film maker.

Irv's mom, Fran, still lives here in Philadelphia, and once a year around his birthday, he comes to stay with her for two weeks. She is in her late eighties now, but up until the last few years, she would go to California to visit him as well for a few weeks every year. When he comes in, Adele and Larry usually spend a lot of time with them, and we try to see him a few times also. When Ari lived in California, we would also get together and spent a few New Year's Eves socializing.

The girls were very excited about brunch at the Wm. Penn Inn. Sami had been there last year for a family celebration while Izzy and been visiting with her other grandparents, and remembered it fondly. Izzy knows it as the place with the pineapple flags hanging outside which we use as a landmark for when we are almost home. When people ask where we live and are a little familiar with the area, we always describe our location in relation to the Wm. Penn Inn. It has been here for many more years than we have and holds many fond memories for us.

Saul began working there as a waiter when he was 19 years old and technically too young to serve drinks. He got the job through Jerry Weiss with whom we also have maintained a friendship over the years. Jerry trained him in how to do French service holding two forks in one hand which was all the rage at the time and how to prepare certain dishes, like steak Diane and caesar salad, tableside. I understand tableside service has been making a comeback recently. Saul worked his way through college waiting tables. When I was in college as a Business Education major, the owners hired me part time to do bookkeeping. On Saturday nights, Saul would be waiting on tables and I would be sitting in a back room totaling columns of figures and jiving them with receipts. Afterwards, we would have a late night date at Perkins Pancake House or Feraco's Pizza, both places which didn't mind customers coming in at midnight.

It was at the Wm. Penn Inn that we met three British brothers, Alex, Ian, and Alistair. The oldest, Alex, was one of the chefs. They all used to play terrible pranks on each other while they were working. One that I remember involved tapping someone who was carrying a tray on the elbow with the edge of a plate--the waiter's equivalent of hazing. Ian has been working at various places in the area all his life and for the last several years has been back at the Wm. Penn Inn along with his son, who is now older than all of us were when we met. I gave him a big hug on Sunday.

We had a lovely brunch, as we always do, and Izzy was suitably impressed. The girls spent part of the time standing behind velvet ropes watching the staff make omelets, eggs Benedict, and waffles to order.

Mom, who used to take great pride in looking just so, was having a difficult time getting herself together for this outing and we didn't want to fuss over her too much for fear she would demur and miss out on this occasion. Once we got her to the table and situated, she really seemed to enjoy herself. We all came back to the house afterwards, the girls took a short nap, and Mom, Mrs. Small, and Larry dozed off in their chairs while Saul, Irv, Adele and I socialized for a couple of hours. I finally was able to show Adele a bit of my blog and encourage her to use her computer more often to check it out.

When they left, we spent the afternoon at the swim club and all went to bed early.

The girls took our warning seriously and have been letting us sleep until 7:30 a.m. for the last few days. Yesterday morning was spent doing laundry and doing what the girls have called dumping day. Evidently when the toys, games, and art supplies begin to turn into an unholy mess at home, they dump everything out on the floor and reorganize it to put it all back in its proper place. When we began the same process with their toy closet here, Sami explained to Izzy that it was just like dumping day, only at Bubbie and Saba's house. We had lunch and went to the swim club for the afternoon. Sami has been managing to find someone new to play with every time we go. She enters the pool as soon as she is done with her art session and doesn't come out again until we tell her it is time to leave. Both girls went off the diving board multiple times and are loving it.

After showers, I made Mom some eggs for dinner and we took the girls to a nearby pizzeria, Franconi's, for dinner. We stopped and picked up some groceries at Redner's a few stores down and then tucked the girls into bed for the evening. We went to bed early.

Tomorrow, we are planning to take the girls home to Baltimore for a couple of days. Alex is returning from Israel on Thursday and the four of them are going to the other grandparents in Cranberry, NJ, for the weekend. This is the weekend of the Caribbean Carnival in DC which goes right by Ari's condo and which we really enjoyed last year, so that is how we are planning to spend our weekend off from the kids--listening to steel drum bands, admiring the costumed dancers marching with their clubs, and having mud slung at us by the mud jumbies. Today looks like another good day for swimming!