Friday, July 8, 2011
NOT 30 YEARS, JUST 26!
"Oopsie!" a former piano student said when he made an error in playing.
"Oopsie," is what I said by writing that we had celebrated thirty years of marriage. It was twenty-six years, not thirty. We had just watched "Capital Fourth" on PBS and it was their thirtieth year! So my mind went there when writing that piece.
Oopsie!
HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY DINNER!
Last evening,we went to dinner to celebrate a friend's step-son's eighteenth birthday. This young man has been taking piano lessons from me. I wrote him a poem to insert in his card along with some cash!
You finally made it,
You have reached your goal!
It was only a matter of time.
We're happy to share with you
This fabulous occasion!
I could write a song and
It might even rhyme.
Your next goal is to graduate
High school and then
Who knows what the future will hold?
Whatever it is, you will be swell
Playing piano, football and all else
You desire to become will be gold!
We ate at a place called "Casey Jones," a sports bar restaurant. I ordered a Philly cheese-steak sandwich that was very tasty! It has been a long time since I've eaten one of those. We were friends with a couple from Philadelphia when we lived in Minneapolis. Their son opened a restaurant that served Philly cheese-steak sandwiches. This one tasted as good as I remember his tasting.
There were eight people in our party, the youngest 12 and the oldest over eighty. A pool table and other game stations, tables, chairs, booths, as well as numerous television sets, two VERY LARGE ones made the spacious room seem crowded although very few patrons were eating. Later on and especially week-ends it is more crowded and noisy we were informed. After dinner, my husband and I enjoyed a spirited conversation with the older gentleman, while the others played games or pool.
"Thanks for coming everybody, terrific party!" called the birthday boy, as we left the restaurant.
by J. Gail Norris
<a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>" title="permanent link">#</a>
"Oopsie," is what I said by writing that we had celebrated thirty years of marriage. It was twenty-six years, not thirty. We had just watched "Capital Fourth" on PBS and it was their thirtieth year! So my mind went there when writing that piece.
Oopsie!
HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY DINNER!
Last evening,we went to dinner to celebrate a friend's step-son's eighteenth birthday. This young man has been taking piano lessons from me. I wrote him a poem to insert in his card along with some cash!
You finally made it,
You have reached your goal!
It was only a matter of time.
We're happy to share with you
This fabulous occasion!
I could write a song and
It might even rhyme.
Your next goal is to graduate
High school and then
Who knows what the future will hold?
Whatever it is, you will be swell
Playing piano, football and all else
You desire to become will be gold!
We ate at a place called "Casey Jones," a sports bar restaurant. I ordered a Philly cheese-steak sandwich that was very tasty! It has been a long time since I've eaten one of those. We were friends with a couple from Philadelphia when we lived in Minneapolis. Their son opened a restaurant that served Philly cheese-steak sandwiches. This one tasted as good as I remember his tasting.
There were eight people in our party, the youngest 12 and the oldest over eighty. A pool table and other game stations, tables, chairs, booths, as well as numerous television sets, two VERY LARGE ones made the spacious room seem crowded although very few patrons were eating. Later on and especially week-ends it is more crowded and noisy we were informed. After dinner, my husband and I enjoyed a spirited conversation with the older gentleman, while the others played games or pool.
"Thanks for coming everybody, terrific party!" called the birthday boy, as we left the restaurant.
by J. Gail Norris
<a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>" title="permanent link">#</a>
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
HAPPY 30th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
This is it!
We said "I DO" thirty years ago today at Sawgrass Lake Park in St. Petersburg Florida. Pastor Brewster of Suncoast Cathedral Assembly of God performed the ceremonty. We decided to go kinda casual, since it was the third marriage for each of us.
My spouse-to-be wore a suit, his usual go-to-dress. I chose a deep pink street length dress. My room-mate made it for me. Mother, who had sewn my clothes previously, died about five years earlier. Dad and my step-mother attended. So did about fifteen to twenty people from the Suncoast Cathedral Divorce Recovery group where we had met a year prior to the wedding. My cousin and her husband also attended. We all went for breakfast nearby after the ceremony.
Then, the HONEYMOON, a driving trip around Florida. Went to several famous locations, I frankly don't remember them all now, but we enjoyed the trip and each other tremendously!
My groom, who vowed he would NEVER leave Florida, two years later moved us to Minneapolis, Minnesota! It was a promotion for him, a job transfer, we had a good six years there, but I am surely happy we came to Arizona!
Anyway, back to TODAY! We went to "Bocca De Beppo!" This has to be my all time favorite restaurant! It is Italian, a type of food we have gravitated to wherever we have traveled or lived. "Bocca," as it is often called, is among the many restaurants in "restaurant row." This is where a number of restaurants are clustered near the Mariner's spring-traing baseball stadium in Glendale AZ around 83rd Avenue and the 101.
We seldom eat out, since my darling is such a gorgeous, wonderful chef himself. I call him "Chef Bernie" and there is a blog which you might enjoy reading! There are many of his recipes there and a contest you want to enter!
We ordered a gorgonzola salad, lobster pizza and carafe of sangria. It all tasted scrumptuous! We brought home enough food for two more meals which we're going to enjoy!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY!
We said "I DO" thirty years ago today at Sawgrass Lake Park in St. Petersburg Florida. Pastor Brewster of Suncoast Cathedral Assembly of God performed the ceremonty. We decided to go kinda casual, since it was the third marriage for each of us.
My spouse-to-be wore a suit, his usual go-to-dress. I chose a deep pink street length dress. My room-mate made it for me. Mother, who had sewn my clothes previously, died about five years earlier. Dad and my step-mother attended. So did about fifteen to twenty people from the Suncoast Cathedral Divorce Recovery group where we had met a year prior to the wedding. My cousin and her husband also attended. We all went for breakfast nearby after the ceremony.
Then, the HONEYMOON, a driving trip around Florida. Went to several famous locations, I frankly don't remember them all now, but we enjoyed the trip and each other tremendously!
My groom, who vowed he would NEVER leave Florida, two years later moved us to Minneapolis, Minnesota! It was a promotion for him, a job transfer, we had a good six years there, but I am surely happy we came to Arizona!
Anyway, back to TODAY! We went to "Bocca De Beppo!" This has to be my all time favorite restaurant! It is Italian, a type of food we have gravitated to wherever we have traveled or lived. "Bocca," as it is often called, is among the many restaurants in "restaurant row." This is where a number of restaurants are clustered near the Mariner's spring-traing baseball stadium in Glendale AZ around 83rd Avenue and the 101.
We seldom eat out, since my darling is such a gorgeous, wonderful chef himself. I call him "Chef Bernie" and there is a blog which you might enjoy reading! There are many of his recipes there and a contest you want to enter!
We ordered a gorgonzola salad, lobster pizza and carafe of sangria. It all tasted scrumptuous! We brought home enough food for two more meals which we're going to enjoy!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
SHARING ALL BLOGS ON TWITTER
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J. Gail Norris chooses to share blog posts on Twitter.
LEARNING TO TYPE AT 70
Here I am at the tender age of 70. My high school, undergraduate and graduate college years all behind me. I should have learned to touch-type long ago, but never did.
"Where your papers handwritten?"
That is a question many might be wondering. Or not.
I hunt-and-pecked my way through all of my college years. Oh, it took me hours upon hours to finish a paper. My graduate thesis was typed by a professional typist. I figured that was worth paying someone to do for me.
Fifteen to twenty words per minute was my fastest in younger days.
I am a pianist, a piano teacher. One might think it would be simple for me to learn touch-typing. It isn't. The most difficult thing for me to do is keeping my eyes on the text, not looking down at the keyboard.
Playing the piano is pretty easy for me. But then my piano lessons began at seven. There are many years between seven and seventy. So I have many hours of practice under my belt.
It won't be easy but I am going to learn how to fo it. I am very determined,
My husband is a very fast typist. In the Army, he served a general as his stenographer. His daughter,my step-daughter, is a cracker-jack typist as well. She is really speedy. They both intimidate me when it comes to typing.
"You have to spend an hour a day for six months," my husband told me.
Well, I started just two days ago, I have not had much practice so far. I will keep you posted how it is progressing...I am optimistic!
"Where your papers handwritten?"
That is a question many might be wondering. Or not.
I hunt-and-pecked my way through all of my college years. Oh, it took me hours upon hours to finish a paper. My graduate thesis was typed by a professional typist. I figured that was worth paying someone to do for me.
Fifteen to twenty words per minute was my fastest in younger days.
I am a pianist, a piano teacher. One might think it would be simple for me to learn touch-typing. It isn't. The most difficult thing for me to do is keeping my eyes on the text, not looking down at the keyboard.
Playing the piano is pretty easy for me. But then my piano lessons began at seven. There are many years between seven and seventy. So I have many hours of practice under my belt.
It won't be easy but I am going to learn how to fo it. I am very determined,
My husband is a very fast typist. In the Army, he served a general as his stenographer. His daughter,my step-daughter, is a cracker-jack typist as well. She is really speedy. They both intimidate me when it comes to typing.
"You have to spend an hour a day for six months," my husband told me.
Well, I started just two days ago, I have not had much practice so far. I will keep you posted how it is progressing...I am optimistic!
Monday, July 4, 2011
FOURTH OF JULY 2011
Three cheers for the red, white and blue! July 4th is a wonderful day to be living in this grand country! It may have faults, but there is nowhere else on earth where freedom is celebrated so freely as here.
\We just watched "The Capital Fourth" on PBS from Washington, D. C., as we do each year. This year the show was spectacular! Entertainment unequaled! Singers from Broadway, American Idol WinnerJordan Sparks from our town of Glendale AZ, Instrumentalists (Steve Martin... who'da guessed? on the banjo,) "Dancing With the Stars" dancers Mark Balas and Kelsey Hightower , National Symphony Orchestra, military trumpets/bands, color guards, happy dancing audience people, hosted by Jimmy Smits, fireworks that seemed to go on forever...mere words can't possibly do the scope of the magnitude displayed! WOW!
Living just a two hour drive from Washington, D. C. for twenty years or so, it seems that there is no reason why I never saw it. Research..when was it started? They started it 30 years ago, so 1991, by my calculation. So that is the reason, since I left Petersburg VA in 1970 when I went to Australia.
Idea: Plan to go to Washington for the Fourth either next yhear or the year after. Talk or write to frinds on the east coast about joining us there for a "Reunion Celebration." Our wedding anniversary is July 6th. We did not go anywhere for our twenty-fifth, so how about next year?
\We just watched "The Capital Fourth" on PBS from Washington, D. C., as we do each year. This year the show was spectacular! Entertainment unequaled! Singers from Broadway, American Idol WinnerJordan Sparks from our town of Glendale AZ, Instrumentalists (Steve Martin... who'da guessed? on the banjo,) "Dancing With the Stars" dancers Mark Balas and Kelsey Hightower , National Symphony Orchestra, military trumpets/bands, color guards, happy dancing audience people, hosted by Jimmy Smits, fireworks that seemed to go on forever...mere words can't possibly do the scope of the magnitude displayed! WOW!
Living just a two hour drive from Washington, D. C. for twenty years or so, it seems that there is no reason why I never saw it. Research..when was it started? They started it 30 years ago, so 1991, by my calculation. So that is the reason, since I left Petersburg VA in 1970 when I went to Australia.
Idea: Plan to go to Washington for the Fourth either next yhear or the year after. Talk or write to frinds on the east coast about joining us there for a "Reunion Celebration." Our wedding anniversary is July 6th. We did not go anywhere for our twenty-fifth, so how about next year?
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