Bonnie Bing sighting

Bonnie is back on U.S. soil after being in Italy for the past couple of weeks. I ran into the glamour gal in the Eagle parking lot. Yes, even though she's not due at work until Tuesday, she felt compelled to come in early and get a few things in order. I can relate.
Vacation obviously agrees with this girl. She looked great. After spending 23 hours on planes and in airports. Some people have all the luck.
Welcome back, Bonnie.

Band groupies

Dale and I went to the inaugural performance today of Wichita's new Professional Band, a wind ensemble of musicians that includes Dale's son, Bret, and his wife, Rachelle. Bret plays the trumpet (he's also in a dance band named Blue-Eyed Soul that plays many gigs in local clubs, and he teaches band at Wilbur Middle School). Rachelle is first clarinet for the Professional Band. She's also a clarinet instructor at Friends University (where the band performs) and she teaches private lessons. And she is the mother of Jaden, Josie and Luke. They are a very busy young couple.

Goodbye summer

Doesn't this tree say it all? Half is still lingering in summer and half has made the transition to fall. Today is the last day of summer, but it doesn't feel possible that fall is just around the corner. Not with sunny skies and temperatures forecast in the upper '80s.
Like everyone else, I'm excited about the crisper days of fall, but autumn also holds the dread of frigid temperatures, ice, snow and everything I hate about the approaching winter. (Socks and coats, too.)
The one bright point: Comfort food! I crave mashed potatoes, now that I haven't had them for six months or so.

Grandparents Day

As a result of being married to Dale, I am Grandma Lori to three adorable kids. Today, two of them, 6-year-old Jaden and 5-year-Josie, invited Dale and me to Grandparents Day at McCollum Elementary School. It's not really a day. Just a lunch. We picked up pepperoni pizza (their request) and joined them for a 30-minute lunch and tour.

The kids love them some pizza. Josie, a girl after my own heart, had three slices.



















Grandpa Goter, as the kids call him, escorts Jaden and Josie into our lunch room.

And here are my artistic attempts at capturing scenes from an elementary school, a weird and wild environment, especially at lunch time...

Yeah, it's THAT reader

OK, most of the time we like helping out the readers who call us wanting this or that. But, somedays, it's like this. On Thursday, my co-worker Chris Shull got one of THOSE readers, when you're just sort of stupefied by the conversation. We can all relate, Chris....


Way to hang in there, big boy.

Bella So-So

Dale and I had a rare dinner out tonight. Along with Denise and Nick and Carrie Rengers, we tried out the new Italian restaurant Bella Dona. We had high hopes because the chef is Douglas Pitts, who we regard highly. But we had a few too many disapppointments to recommend this restaurant highly. Nonetheless, we had a good time.
Highlights of the night: My steak pizzoli, Denise's scallops, my white beans with escarole and all of our desserts.
We also talked favorite movies and these were among the titles we mostly agreed on: Pulp Fiction, Casablanca and, in honor of the restaurant we were in, Big Night.

The many faces of Carrie

This is just an excuse to show Carrie Rengers being naughty . This is good Carrie, entertaining Denise's 2-year-old daughter, Lexi.

This is bad Carrie. Thank God Lexi had gone to bed at this point of movie night last Saturday....

Bad, bad Carrie....

Who needs high-tech doo-dads?

Dale's grandkids showed tonight they need just the simplest of props to have fun, namely our bed, pillows and related accessories. I can't begin to count how many heads were almost cracked, but dang it was fun....
Here's Jaden, the oldest of the three grandkiddies...

This tangle of arms and legs is Jaden and Luke...


Josie using my pillow shams as a mask....

... and unmasked....


and fun in the shower capped the night's fun.

And, in the end, the only one to get hurt from the evening's roughhousing was Dale. The poor guy took a spill and nearly took out Josie and Barney in the process. Here he is icing down his left knee; his injury has left him almost immobile. Tomorrow, we will have to rent crutches if things don't improve.

Color scheme

Red and pink were among the hottest color trends spotted at movie night Saturday at Denise's. Robin Macy was the envy of all gathered as she showed off her new kicks...

That prompted Bonnie to put her best foot forward, clad in mules decorated with a most genteel image, very appropriate for our "Jane Eyre" movie selection. But, pink...


..... was also in our color scheme, in the form of a tasty pink champagne that Bonnie graciously shared with us. Thanks, Bon! Below is one more pic of Bonnie...

... flashing that famous smile (with Denise and Kerry sharing the limelight.)

Movie night

Like many other events in our lives, movie night at Denise's Saturday revolved around a fabulous meal. We started with tomato/basil/goat cheese bruscetta....


.... Then dove into Carrie's best-ever Caesar salad with homemade croutons.... Then onto our main course, Denise's rich and yummy fettucine with Italian sausage in a tomato cream sauce. Word.

Here's our group...



Robin Macy joined us later for a glass of wine and showed off her darling new red shoes. You'll have to come back later to see that and several other worthwhile photos from the night, including several of Carrie at her most charming.
Sorry I didn't get a photo of Denise's dessert, a rhubarb custard-tyle cobbler that she got a recipe for fron Tess's blog. (You can go to Tess Knadler's blog and see a photo!)
The night concluded with four of us actually staying to watch the movie, PBS' "Jane Eyre." There was much consternation, tho, when after two hours we realized that the DVD Denise had was just Part One of the movie. Groans all the way around. At least now we have an excuse to get together to watch the conclusion of the saga of Ms. Eyre and her Mr. Rochester. If we can find it somewhere. Anyone?