January 2010 ~ 10 weeks until Spring

Christmas in Phoenix was really a lot of fun. These are a couple of my gifts! Joey found these in an antique shop in Chicago. On says A T & T, the other says "Made in the USA." I love the colors especially. I was a little worried about getting these aboard the airplane for the 2,500 mile trip home, but it turned out to be OK. One of them even smelled a bit like burnt electrical wires....I have seen these all over the country, especially when we've been hiking. I can't tell you how many times I tried to get Ed to climb an abandoned telephone pole to get me one of these, but he was No Way to that. In Colorado, we talked to a farmer from Nebraska that told us he had bushel baskets of these in his barn. He offered to send me one, but I was too shy to really take him up on his generous offer. I should have left him my card! (How did this come up? We saw some of these on the train ride to the top of Pikes Peak. The farmer heard me admiring them. These are fun!





While we were in Palm Springs, we saw a model train exhibit - low and behold, they had taken the time to include these electrical insulators in the display! So cool!

I was tickled to find a package from Ohio under Amanda's tree! It was so much fun to get those East/West Coast photos of Z ! She is the star of my fridge right now. I can't say that Lilly was too thrilled with the cutest sweater, but she was tolerant of our playing with it and her. That was funny too, the dog weighs 35 lbs., and 25 lbs of that is her hair! Lilly is a quiet dog, very well mannered.



I was sick most of last week, home for 4 days straight with no contact other than these two cats. Poor cats!! They were loving the sunshine, warn through those glass doors, even though it was in the teens outside and blowing so cold.
I'm feeling a lot better now, sadly back into my windowless office, missing this sunshine. I leave the drapes open for Zeus and Hera.
Actually, I can't really say "No Contact" -- not with Facebook, Skype and the iPhone. But, I digress.
I even hosted a conference call for attendees that were all over the country, they had no clue I wasn't in my office.

Pretty things from Mom's

I always loved the salt cellars and the toothpick holder. Here they are, joining the collection of wonderful beautiful art pieces in my overcrowded china cabinet. Behind the Jewel T dish, there is the blue art glass vase from Rosie's.


Lovely pieces.

Photos to share

I love this photo. It was one of the ones Patsy found for the photo board display at Mom's funeral. I took it home so I could scan it. I don't remember ever seeing it before. This was on our back porch prior to Pat and Stan's wedding. Really neat photo, one of my new favorites.

Remembering some oldies but goodies.

Thought of these handwritten recipes I had posted a while ago from Mom's.

http://pazzofamiglia.blogspot.com/2008/12/moms-recipes.html

Delia descends from a long line of strong women

Patsy at Sun Valley November 1976

Tracy enjoying the autumn sun at Sun Valley, Nov. 1976

1989 was a good year

This was the first Thanksgiving Ed & I had to miss with our family. Mom made me feel included by sending me lots of photos --- seems funny now. It was so "pre-Internet!" The handwriting on the back is Mom's, of course. This was taken at Park Blvd. That's Rosie with Stan, and Beatrice in the background of this one.

I'm trying to clean house in my little overcrowded condo, but I'm really enjoying going through these things. Here is Mom & Dad on the San Francisco BART train in 1989, just after we moved to California.


Amanda Nicholson, the 1988-89 Bridgeport Jerry West cheerleading squad.

Great Strong Family Times

April 1994

Well, the Gold Gate Bridge was the view from Ed's first office in San Francisco twenty years ago. No wonder he had a good work ethic, right?

It didn't take Dad and Mom long to fly west. This photo is not from their first trip, but about 5 years into our life in California. This time Mom and Dad had brought Trisha too. I have pictures of everyone in California! Dad really enjoyed these trips, and I like to think Mom did as well, after the plane ride was over. 8-)


This one is Mom's 72nd Birthday, on May 9th, 1994. I couldn't be there, but Mom sent me this photo. It shows Dad, Stan, Trish and Tracy and Mom. Patsy took the photo.