Hi Bag, have you seen Portia? (Patty)

Those unmade beds look good to me! No papers or Cheeto dust on them whatsoever!
We had that block party last weekend…I go in with my neighbor directly across the street, we split everything, the food, the alcohol, the ice, etc and we set up our porch furniture right in the middle of the street, with rugs and flowers, it’s very festive. This format has been working beautifully for many years, but for the first time this year, it rained on the party. The rain didn’t start until 10:30PM or so and it only came down for 15 minutes, but everyone was edgy because it was raining all over town and you could hear thunder and people were arriving with tales of torrential rain in near-by areas, and there was this tipping point, when all the guests, in an effort it be helpful, started grabbing things and rescuing them to “dryness” ….a flurry of chairs, tables, chafing dishes, everything flew to safety. Our friends came into our house, and Angele’s friends went into Angele’s house…but sadly the FOOD all went into Angele's house!! Given the fact that there never was a contingency plan for rain, I couldn’t be too bothered by this, and people were 99% done eating but you know that at a party, noshing is the law. We continued to drink, the rain stopped and the band started playing again and they even played until 12:30 (not Midnight) due to the unscheduled weather-break and it was fun. BUT…(be patient, this round-about recap actually ties into the unmade beds…) There are up sides and down sides of having super-neat neighbors! We have different concepts of “leftover”. I ENJOY spending money, but I HATE wasting money…if I cater a party, and there is a little salmon and salad and whatever leftover, for me it will either be a delicious midnight snack or possibly lunch the next day. If you are organized like Angele is, and have a different mindset, especially if you have an employee helping with the clean up, a lot of stuff gets thrown away. It’s a package deal, if you are going to have a perfect, stuff-free kitchen with counters you could bowl on, you’ve got to keep perishables moving! Leftover salad doesn’t have a chance in that environment! 2 of my tablecloths ended up over there, and they came back washed, crisply ironed in a pure shade of white that I did not know could be attained. I’ve never been upstairs in their house, but I will bet you a million dollars that every bed is made.
One last thing about the business of happiness, I too can see the wisdom of coaxing a child away from the negative side of things…shortly after Katrina sent 1/3 of our belongings swimming into oblivion, we were standing at a luggage carousel, and Portia had a sentimental, far-away look in her eyes. I thought she was going to say something nice about the trip we had just been on, but instead she said, “I really miss that turquoise piece of luggage.” And I had to nip that in the bud, I quickly responded” OK, we are NOT going to mourn our goods item by item by item, we lost a lot of things, but we still have TONS of stuff, so just LET IT GO”. It’s possible that yelling at a kid to make them feel happier is not the textbook method to success in that area, but that is the technique I went with that day.
I’m sort of jealous that Blue could leave his bike outside all winter and not have it stolen, extra credit for Madison, Wisconsin!!!
Finally, I’ve never been to Lafayette, LA in my life, and for various reasons, I’ve been there 2 times in 2 weeks…it’s a cute little Cajun town, all the roads are like “Rue de Louis XIV”… Its been great one-on-one time with Portia, but honestly I just spent a YEAR with her, we don’t need anymore quality one-on-one time, but the best thing about the 2 hour trip is that exactly halfway there is the world’s best yogurt shop. In the same way that homemade ice cream is so superior to regular ice cream, this yogurt is incredible. They say it’s 32 calories per half-cup which I know is a lie…it’s too good! My favorite is the Humphrey Yo-gart, but now I am out of excuses to stop there!
The second best thing about the trip was watching Portia walk around with this HUGE tennis bag….A few months ago, we were at some event where they were raffling off a few prizes and she zeroed in on this behemoth bag, pestering me to take chances on it, repeatedly asking when the drawing was, worked up about it in a way that a middle-of-the-road type person like myself can only roll their eyes at… it was cute the way she was so excited about the stupid bag, pulling me to the tent when it was time for the drawing, sitting right next to the bag with a hopeful look. Then she WON THE BAG! It was so preposterous, they had barely announced her first name, and she scooped the bag up, the person running the event was confused, like “Hmmm, where did that bag go?” but Portia was already high-fiving her friends and loading stuff into what can only be described as an armoire with straps on it….
So that’s the scoop down here! (Shoot, I wish I hadn’t used the word “scoop” because that reminds me of yogurt….)

Patty