Good morning all:

Weekly Wisdom:

“Spending Valentines Day in the hospital I took a turn for the nurse.” —W. C. Fields

This evening is our neighborhood’s annual progressive dinner. Marcia has volunteered to bring some finger foods to house number one. There will be four homes total. Had we been allocated to provide for house number four, the deserts, I would have volunteered to make my favorite British desert; .

Now continue with my morning coffee as I contemplate on a great day and evening.

Much talk – Little Vai has gone from a word here and there to, currently, nonstop talking. Talk to herself, talk to her toys, talk to her parents, and cousins, and her Oma and Opa. Last evening Adrianne and Tevita picked us up to head out for dinner. Marcia had spotted a new Mexican restaurant nearby and we were going to try it out. The two of us climbed into the back seat next to Vai in her child seat. She was all excited telling us, “I go to Michigan.” Several times over, “I go to Michigan.”

I forget who it was that put two and two together. After all, Mexican doesn’t sound all that much different from Michigan—especially when you have little clue what either word means. So you see, last evening we had a wonderful Michigan dinner at the new Cançun restaurant.

2nd graders – My memories of 2nd grade are a bit scarce. What I do remember are some very rote events of writing cursive letters and columns of numbers. Today it’s a different world.

Later this month it will be Derek’s birthday. He talked with his mom and suggested that he design and make the party invitations. Not only that, but he has plans to hide something special into the artwork on each of the invitations. Now, how cool is that?

Then Marin, who is also 2nd grader. He’s come up with the idea of setting up a mystery solving detective agency—the Treehouse Detectives. He and a friend began operations a few weeks ago and have since brought aboard another two “associates.”

For a 25¢ fee they will solve your mystery. I had a question for the detectives. We had some Pomegranates and I realized that I enjoyed the seeds on my morning cereal. The detectives were able to point out that the Pomegranate seeds are something special and are called “arils.” Definitely worth a quarter to learn that tit-bit.

Animal Kingdom – No matter what the current outside temperature is, it is the animals which provide insight to the seasons. The Red Tailed hawks which have nested by our house for the past two years have slipped into high gear. Building exactly where they nested last year, they are back at it; flight after flight, bringing twigs, pine branches, and moss to their new construction project. It’s wonderful seeing these beautiful birds soar through the back yard.

Closing – Remember that this is both tax season as well as Valentines Day week that it was Pearl Bailey who said that “the world needs more love and less paper work.”

Make it a great week!

Cheers,

Dirk