Catching up with friends and family

Sunset and clouds

It has definitely been the "winter of our discontent" to quote Shakespeare.   Like many others across the country, we have been plagued this winter by very cold temperatures and too much snow.  And the phrase "I'm tired of being inside" resonates with everyone.

We have been longing for warmer temperatures and a hint of Spring.  And I think we're finally getting there.  Our temps now vacillate between the teens and upper 50's, and any new snow melts within a couple of days.  Now we actually see people in the neighborhood walking and riding their bikes even though it's still a bit brisk.

And after this long hibernation period of curling up on the couch at night with a blanket and a book or TV show, people are finally ready to socialize again.  And so we've been busy catching up with friends and family...

Thursday my brother Gary and sister-in-law Peggy were in town for the Big Ten Basketball Tournament.  They are huge basketball fans, and had a great time despite losses by Indiana University and Purdue.  Mike and I met up with them for dinner at one of our favorite places in Broad Ripple, Twenty Tap.  They spent the night at our house and headed back home on Friday morning.

I then met up with my friend Elena on Friday for lunch and shopping.  We enjoyed getting caught up on work and hobbies and vacation plans.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the downtown area was all hustle and bustle, which I hadn't seen since Christmas.

Chris and Garth during the Italian Tapas meal

And Saturday evening was an event that I will long remember.  Our friends Chris and Garth invited us and two other couples to their home for an Italian Tapas meal.  Chris is an amazing cook, and she prepared all the dishes for a 5 course meal.  As good as any meal in a fine restaurant,  here is a glimpse of the food she prepared:  antipasto, stuffed mushrooms, stuffed dates, ravioli and gnocchi.

Chuck and Melanie

And the wine...  Garth served two different Italian wines with each course, which were paired perfectly with the food.  We ended the dinner with a choice of pistachio liqueur or raspberry liqueur and a lovely tiramisu that Chris whipped up.

Dinner lasted for 5 hours, and we had so much savoring the food and enjoying the stories and laughing with our friends.  It was an incredible evening.

Tiramisu

Joyce and Emma

We slept in on Sunday and then headed to lunch with my friend Joyce. She and I worked together for about 10 years in Des Moines, and she was in town to take her son back to college after Spring Break.  Over a great pizza lunch, Mike and I enjoyed talking with Joyce and getting to know her son Chad, daughter Emma and Chad's girlfriend, Hannah.

Joyce and I had a great chance to catch up a bit on how happy she is at her new job managing technology at a Des Moines Company.  She updated me on some health issues she faced last year, and I am so happy that she has recovered and is doing well.  I could have talked with her for hours, and we agreed to get together when I return to DM later this Spring.

Hannah and Chad

Kathy and Kevin

And while we were at lunch, we got a text from our friends Kevin and Kathy from Illinois asking if we had anything going on Sunday as they wanted to get together.  So we said "come on over", and we spent the evening in downtown Indy at the Slippery Noodle enjoying a great meal and music by one of our favorite guitar players, Chris Shaffer.

And by Monday morning, I was EXHAUSTED but smiling at the events of the past several days.  Rarely is there so much going on, but we loved visiting with our peeps...

Surely signs of Spring are in the air...

Diane

Missing my old job...

Sunset on Friday evening

Imagine my surprise last Friday.  I was having lunch in downtown Indianapolis with a friend, and I was feeling quite proud of myself for my first drive downtown BY MYSELF.  

My friend is a project manager for a large company in town, and we began to talk about her latest project.  Wow!  It was like finding someone who speaks your native language after spending a long time in a foreign country.  In my own world of engineers, scientists and professors, I finally found someone who could speak project management.



As my friend described her current project,  I mentally travelled back to my job as a Project and Program Manager.  I remembered all the activities she discussed: meeting with sponsors and key stakeholders, managing project scope, holding project kickoff meetings, deciding when to push an issue when the team is in a "group think" mode, and learning whom you can trust.    

We talked about how to deliver tough messages, how to handle the people who try to derail a project, and when you demonstrate strong leadership vs. blending into the team.  My friend talked about the challenges and rewards of this role, and I realized I missed Project Management.

Holy cow!  Who saw that coming?  I was shocked to say the least.  Here I am enjoying my third year of retirement and my total freedom from a work schedule, when I started wistfully thinking about finding a project manager job.  And in the very next second I realized an intervention was necessary to help me escape that notion of joining the working world.

Ok, I haven't dusted off my resume or applied for any jobs.  But I've been giving more thought to working again as a project manager.  I don't know if that makes sense for me or not, but I'm no longer saying "I don't miss working at all"...

Diane

Volunteering at the Food Pantry

We take for granted that we can go to the grocery and buy the groceries we need.  On Saturday we got to experience first hand some people who aren't so fortunate.

Yesterday Mike and I volunteered at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry.  Our church volunteers once a month, and we decided to participate. We arrived at the Food Pantry at 8 A.M. ready to work.  When we walked in the front door, I was amazed at the crowd of people seated in the waiting area.  Upon checking in, each person is given a ticket with a number, and they wait in this area until their number is called.

The shopping area was set up in a large "U" shape, and it was filled with produce, dry goods, meat, eggs, frozen foods, bread, milk and canned goods. Each item "costs" a specific number of points, and the client selects the items they want until they have used up their points for the week.  The place was buzzing with activity with folks shopping and volunteers replenishing the supply.  The attitude was upbeat with the shoppers smiling and conversing and the volunteers answering questions.

We were introduced to Don, who showed us the volunteer sign in set us up with name tags.  He took us to the supply area where bulk items were delivered including produce, eggs and frozen foods. These food donations came from Food Banks, the USDA Commodity Program, Kroger, Colonial, local food drives and discounted purchases from other vendors.

Mike started tearing down boxes, and I donned my gloves and began packaging squash into individual plastic bags.  These bags were added to the produce cart which was quickly moved to the shopping area.

I then moved into the egg packing area. There was a pallet of egg boxes, and our job was to repackage these eggs into the egg cartons that held 12 eggs each.  I have never seen so many eggs in my entire life.  I wish I had counted them, but I estimate that four volunteers, including me, packaged hundreds of dozens of eggs.  This was the first time the food pantry had eggs available in about a month, and the clients eagerly put them into their carts.

Next I moved to potatoes.  Basically we took 40 pound bags of potatoes and repackaged them into individual plastic bags.  This wasn't a difficult task, but I never did get used to finding and removing the occasional rotting potato.  I was definitely happy to be wearing my latex gloves.















Next we opened boxes of frozen foods including potatoes, bread, tortillas, mashed potatoes, vegetables and pastry.  Our job was to make sure the packaging was intact, and then to move the packages into a huge walk-in freezer.  Although we could not use opened or torn bags in the food pantry, the food did not go to waste as a local farmer picked up the food for his hogs.  Somehow I have a great visual of some hogs happily munching on french fries yesterday...

And the most unusual food of the day was Brazil nuts.  We repackaged three 50 pound bags of nuts into smaller individual bags. And let me tell you that 150 pounds of Brazil nuts is a lot of nuts!

I used a shopping cart to move some of these individual bags to the shopping area, and I made a small cardboard label so people knew what they were.  I smiled when one guy excitedly asked "are these Brazil nuts?", and another man asked if they were chocolate pieces.  I also saw people pick them up and look at them strangely and return them to the bin.  Possibly an acquired taste...

By noon we were tired and sore from all this standing, lifting and packaging.  We had met some great volunteers, and we felt like we were part of something bigger than ourselves.  We helped get food to people who really needed it.  And as we walked to our car, a client who was unchaining her bike from a street sign, said "Thank you for volunteering and God Bless".  And I know we had smiles on our faces the rest of the day...

Diane

Learning my new iPhone

Selfie. What can I say?

I will admit that we've been slow adopters of phone technology.  Two years ago we had flip phones.  Until last week we both had "smart phones" that we didn't allow to be smart, i.e. we didn't enable the Internet.  And then Mike got me an iPhone for Valentine's Day, and I suddenly jumped into the 21st century.

And I absolutely love it!  For a person who doesn't like to read manuals, I've been reading the online manual on my iPad while holding my new phone and checking out the features.  I know, go ahead and say it.  TOTAL GEEK!

Here's what I love, and where I've been struggling...

Love these new features...
1. The camera is awesome!  I'm not sure I've got the hang of it yet, but I'll get there.  Ok, it may have taken us several hours to figure out how to get pictures moved to my computer.  But after waiting forever on hold with Verizon, we found it embarrassingly easy once we did a Google search.  As Mike tells his students "Google is your friend".

2. SIRI is an interesting feature that usually has me laughing as she interprets my questions.  But I love that I can ask her about a location, and her answer includes a map.  However she can't tell us who was a lead singer in a band.  I know, get your priorities straight.

3. You can see who called your voicemail if they are in your contacts, and you don't need to enter a password to retrieve the voicemail. Saves a lot of time even though most people don't leave voicemail these days.

4. The display of texts back and forth with another person is awesome.  I love that the dialogue appears on a single screen.

5. We currently use the CalenGoo (Google calendar) app on our iPads, and after downloading it to the phone, I could easily view all of our appointments.

6. I love that I can easily check email on the phone.  It was easy to set up my email, and after a bit of fumbling I also set up Mike's email so we can check them both if we're out and about.

7.  We are very familiar with the App Store from our iPads, and so it is second nature to download apps.  Ok, Scrabble was the first thing I downloaded.  It's a bit of a challenge to play a game on such a small device, but I'll get there.

Not so sure about these features...
1. It's hard to type text messages since I'm used to the pull out keyboard on my old phone.  Once I turned off the auto correct feature it was much easier.

2. It's challenging to read news articles on such a small screen, but I think I'll get used to this over time.  I did make the text size larger which really helps.

3. I have to charge the phone more frequently than I ever did on my previous phone.  I read about this before getting the phone so I wasn't surprised.  If this is a problem, I may consider one of the cases that can power the phone.

4. There are so many features, that it may take me a long time to learn everything the phone can do.  Not a bad problem to have I guess.


Here is a photo montage of Indy taken with my new phone:

Canal in Broad Ripple

Cemetery

Downtown Indy at dusk

Lucas Oil Stadium

White River

Eagle Creek Reservoir

The Pyramids

Of course there's more to life than a new phone...

We enjoyed a great dinner with friends Chuck and Melanie at Napolese in downtown Indy.  Very delicious salads and unusual pizza (we tried a pizza with roast beef), not to mention strange drinks. Mike tried one called "10 bullets".   Not sure why that name, but he loved the drink which included bourbon and a type of Italian bitters that his grandpa used to drink. And  he really had "20 bullets" by the end of dinner.

Chuck and Melanie

And I've been busy with a few crafts during these last (hopefully) days of winter...

Coin pouch

And we enjoyed a brief trip to mom's so Mike could finish some plumbing work he started a couple of weeks ago. And the most famous line of the trip was from Mike:  "Doesn't everyone have a propane torch?" And maybe the answer from my brother Gary sums it up for most people: "If it involves fire, I call in the professionals".

Hope you are enjoying a great week.
Diane

Olympics and weather: is there anything else to talk about?

Snowy drive to Southern Indiana last weekend

Weather. Weather. Weather.  It's part of every conversation these days.

• With our trusty cell phones and iPads, we helped friends navigate through an ice storm in Alabama as they made their way to warmer weather in Florida.  And of course when they finally arrived, they informed us that it's 67 degrees.  
• We canceled events with friends because of predictions of ice and freezing rain.  
• We headed out early when traveling to mom's to avoid another snowfall (and good thing we did since we got 5 inches of snow here last Friday).  
• We pulled out our lightweight coats when the temps hit 45 degrees, and I finally got to walk outside (while dodging slushy and icy patches on the road).  
• An Indiana-Iowa basketball game was cancelled when a piece of steel fell into Assembly Hall because of ice and snow on the roof. 
• And we are now bracing for storms and flooding today as temps hit the upper 50's.  





Concrete statue last summer: how it should be.

• And next week the forecast is for another polar vortex.

Concrete statue today: covered with snow. 

But the Olympics are a bright spot. We look forward to watching the events at night even though we usually know the outcomes from the news apps on our iPads.  Even our cat, Blue Belle,  seemed to be fascinated by the downhill ski event.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her batting at the screen.

Blue Belle watching the Olympics

Texas primroses on the deck last summer

And I dream of warm days ahead.  We plan to build a raised garden this Spring and try our hand at growing vegetables.  And I wistfully remember all the flowers from last summer.  I remind myself each day that passes is another step closer to Spring.  Not an easy thing when I prefer whining about the weather...


Have a great week!
Diane

Happy Valentine's Day

Where's the pink icing?

 Happy Valentine's Day!


Ah yes, one day closer to Spring.  Today it was 40 degrees, and it felt like summer time with puddles of water on the road instead of snow and ice.  And though the forecast is for more snow tomorrow, I am dreaming of 50 degree days next week.  Maybe it's finally the big thaw...

Go Pacer's!

Last weekend we went to the Indiana Pacers-Portland Trailblazer's game, and it was the first time I ever saw Mike excited about basketball.  Nothing like the Pacer's getting a 3 pointer to tie the game and go into overtime.  From then on the crowd went wild cheering the Pacer's to victory.

Enjoying the game at the Varsity Club with other Rose-Hulman alums

Niece Diane and great-niece Violet

On Sunday we met our great-niece Violet.  She is a cutie and was enjoying a lazy day of sleeping and eating, which I guess is what most infants do.

Alice telling me the facts while Diane looks on

It was fun playing with her sister Alice who was dancing and singing and generally bouncing off the walls.  Nothing like a small child to give you permission to dance and act crazy.  Gotta love it!












I've been enjoying long leisurely days of reading.  If you haven't been to your local library lately, check out their eBooks.  Finding a book online and downloading it onto the Kindle app on my iPad is so easy.  After years of not having time for books, I've read three books since the first of the year...

And then there's my hodge-podge of crafts this winter.  I pulled out an unfinished embroidery project from the mid-90's, and I'm re-learning cross stitch while watching the Winter Olympics.  Given my pace, I'll probably finish these quilt squares when I'm 75.










 I've had an urge to oil paint lately so I pulled out the paints and canvas and went to town.  Now, I've never had a painting class, but I love how you can blend paint colors and even paint over mistakes.  I saw a picture of this stylized tulip in a catalog, and I decided to try it.  Ok, it may look like a 3rd grader painted it,  but the painting makes me happy.

And yes, it took me 4 days to get the blue paint out from under my fingernails...
















And I decided to make another clutch purse with some of the designer fabric my friend Melanie gave me.  The handle is scavenged from a Goodwill purse.  The only thing I paid for was the zipper.  Can't beat it!





 








You know, once I decided not to fight this awful winter, I'm enjoying it more.   It's now my excuse to spend more time on hobbies...

I hope you enjoy a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones!
Diane

All things snow

Our new tradition of Dunkin' Donuts after a snowstorm.

7 inches of snow = Jeep + donuts + a drive through Eagle Creek Park.  

We're retired. Why not?

We headed to Eagle Creek Park to enjoy the snow.  Normally we enjoy this park on bikes.

We forged a new path through the park before the snowplow.

Good tires are a must...

As are trusty boots...

Where is the picnic food?

Again...where is the picnic food?

Where are the kids?

Seriously?  Register Now Summer Day Camps.

No speeding today.

And after a wonderful morning playing in the snow, a beautiful Hibiscus bloom reminds me Spring is right around the corner...

I hope you are enjoying this day wherever you are!

Diane