CATCHUP AND SPAM-A-LOT

It's been a LONG time since I've posted here. We've had a lot going on , so I though I'd better play catch-up before we leave for Santa Fe and a much cooler climate ;-)

I have been very busy working with my latest very worthwhile project with the church, Remain Faithful, so I really haven't had time to keep up with my blog. Check out our web page to see what it's all about, http://www.remainfaithful.org/ . To date, we stand at over 475 members representing over 19,000 collective years of membership in The Episcopal Church and we've only been organized for a little over 3 weeks. It's been a lot of hard work and this is only the beginning, but I'm so glad that I am able to help with this wonderful effort for the church and the Anglican communion
Father's Day was the 15th this year and we had a wonderful brunch at Franklin's house. Beth's Father, Joe was there, so it was a triple celebration.... the three Fathers

and we 3 Mothers who made their fatherhood possible. Without us they would just be three guys hanging out together ;-)

I might also throw in here that my now 45 year old baby was born on Father's Day in New Mexico and that was a real blessing for us. Father's Day didn't fall on his birthday this year but we still always celebrate this wonderful event in all of our lives. Here is a photograph of Franklin when he was only a few weeks old. His Papa was really proud as you can see.

And speaking of boys ... here are the puppy brothers, Harry and Bailey, together again this year. The little toots just go crazy when they are together. And they have the strangest eyes. Maybe that's what the song is referring to when it says "She's Got Bette Davis Eyes". In this case it would be "he's got" since they are both males.

They're a brownish pink, so they look like flashlights when you photograph them! They're supposed to be Pomapoos (part Pomeranian and part Poodle) but they are the most unique looking dogs I've ever seen. (You'll note that I didn't use the word strange.) I think a Dachshund possibly came to visit their Mama on occasion prior to their birth. They're absolutely precious and I love them to death but they are very unusual looking!
Beth made shrimp tacos for our lunch with refried beans and everything was delicious. We had a great visit. It's always nice when family gets together.

Frank has a good friend, Lou, and they go to ball games together quite a bit, both baseball and hockey. Lou is a big Ranger fan and they have season tickets together. I don't think that Lou has missed a game all season! Here they are in all the fan paraphernalia on the way to a game. They really enjoy each other's company.





Then last Saturday we had another family gathering (I just LOVE family get togethers) and celebrated Franklin's 45th birthday"
The cake is an Italian Cream cake and the ornament on the top is nearly 30 years old. You can pull a little tab on the top and it plays Happy Birthday and of course we all sing together off key to the birthday person.


The birthday person has to eat their meal off of this plate. We have used both the singing ornament and the special plate for every birthday celebration in the family for the past 30 years. Another one of the Salazar traditions.

One of Paco's gifts ( that is my special name for my precious son .. it means friend in Spanish), was a chicken cooker. There's a long story behind it but I won't bore you with it. Bottom line, we were on a fishing trip and Franklin prepared "Beer Butt Chicken".
The meal turned out to be less than desirable as it was a little undercooked and he and I had a "discussion" about it and I stormed out of the room and didn't return for the rest of the evening. It was the first time in my 71 years that I went to bed without my dinner. Enough said :-)

The young and almost all of the old swam for a couple of hours. Ethan, my great grandson was not able to be here, but his step brother, Tyler came. Tyler is the one on the left. They all love the jacuzzi as much as they do the pool.

The adults visited, had a few libations and Rachel, Nick's sister, showed him the best way in her opinion to drink beer.


We all enjoyed the mild weather outside and I even left my perch in the kitchen and went outside.

Papa drank a toast to the fact that I left the air conditioning long enough to join the group.

Beth always looks adorable and always has a smile on her face.

It was turning into a perfect day, even in the Texas heat!

Matt, Rachel's husband, seemed to really enjoy himself.

So did my darling granddaughter, Rachel.

We discovered that when Dayna sits on Nicky's shoulders the combined height is almost ten feet. That's one tall twosome!

I served a real comfort food meal for the birthday feast. I usually try to fix something really fancy, but this old body doesn't have the stamina it used to have, so I fixed a roast with potatoes, carrots, gravy, fresh green beans and rolls.

They ate the entire 18 pound roast and left only about a cup out of 5 pounds of green beans. Ian even told me that it was the best meal he'd ever had and wanted to know if we could have it for Christmas dinner! My old time cooking was a real hit and it was SO easy to fix. I must do this more often!!!
Last night we went to see Spamalot at the Bass Hall. I don't remember when I have had so much fun and laughed so much. It was a terrific musical and an excellent production.

Monty Python's Spamalot is a comedic musical "lovingly ripped off from" the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre. Eric Idle, a member of the Monty Python team, wrote the musical's book and lyrics, and collaborated with John Du Prez on the music. It was originally directed by Mike Nichols and won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004–2005 season.

When I was a young girl, my parents took me to New York and I saw "Kiss Me, Kate" at the Shubert theatre. It was a wonderful experience. I'll tell you more about that later. The Shubert is where Spamalot is playing in NYC. New York New York, What a wonderful town!
Idle explained the title in a February 2004 press release about the musical:
"I like the title Spamalot a lot. We tested it with audiences on my recent US tour and they liked it as much as I did, which is gratifying. After all, they are the ones who will be paying Broadway prices to see the show. It comes from a line in the movie which goes: ‘we eat ham, and jam and Spam a lot."
Franklin was huge fan of Monty Python when he was growing up so of course, Frank and I were fans as well. You know the old saying "If you can't lick them, join them" and we did.
We will be leaving for 3 wonderful weeks in The Land of Enchantment on Friday and I will blog from there. Please stay tuned as there will be some very exciting things going on in our travels for the next couple of months.

XOXO, Pcasso

BIRTHDAYS, PIRANHA KILLER SUSHI, HOUSEHOLD CHALLENGES AND TAKEE OUTIE

It has been a very full week in more ways than one! I've been working on Remain Faithful for at least 6 hours a day, but have managed to take some much needed breaks along the way.

Our poor house has had a lot of things going on in it. There was a severe storm in April when we were gone and we had hail damage to all 3 roofs ... the main house, my studio and the hot house, so they all have to be replaced. Then we discovered water damage in two different places. Frank's shower has been leaking and we noticed that the hardwood floor in the hall had changed color. We were afraid that it was the shower pan but it was the shower door, so the entire floor has to be taken up as well as the hardwood in the hall and the frame on the door and they must all be replaced. On top of that, the sprinkler system was hitting the windows in the kitchen, so the floor has buckled and must be replaced.

Since the floor is over 7 years old, they don't make that color any more, so the entire kitchen and dining room hardwood floors have to be replaced.



We have decided to get this done while we are in New Mexico and not be here for the mess! It seems that when you own property it's always something!!!
We have been out to eat at least once a day and sometimes twice for the whole week and my hips are certainly beginning to show it! Thank goodness I'm able to exercise at the hospital again, so that helps a little! I had lunch with my dear friend, Margie, at Piranah Killer Sushi to celebrate my upcoming birthday and anniversary.

We will be out of town during both of those milestones in my life, so she treated me to lunch. We had a delicious meal and enjoyed each other's company as always.
That night we went out with our good friends, the Walkers, and had a wonderful Italian meal.

Our other good friends, the Sawyers, were supposed to go as well, but she has a virus so they had to cancel. That certainly was a disappointment as we always have fun together.
Last night was a long time friend's birthday and his wife had a lovely dinner party for about 30 of us to honor him on this special occasion. Our hostess, DeeDee, is in the middle

and the birthday boy is below in the printed shirt on the right.

We have all been friends for the past 40+ years and it was a wonderful gathering. I made him this silly little birthday card with the following greeting inside.

Happy Birthday, Jug!
It seems like only yesterday
that you were a precious baby.
Now that you are ready for Medicare,
welcome to our world!!!




This is the card I made with his face on it. The little angel baby was a real hit and I had great fun making it.
Frank is watching the golf tournament all weekend so I decided to paint. As I said before, I'm working on a sushi series for Nicholas, my eldest grandson. Last week I painted the second piece in the series for him and today I completed the "Takee Outie Box". I hope he likes it.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and Franklin is having us and Beth's Father over for lunch after church. We're really looking forward to it. Franklin really enjoys cooking and I know we'll have both a great meal and a great time. Here are all the Dads last year and I'll try to get a similar photo this year.

Harry (the Granddog) will probably have his brother there too, so we can watch the puppies play together. They look just alike. No one is really sure what kind of dogs they are, but whatever there are, there's no doubt that they are brothers! Here is Harry

and here is his brother. Which twin has the Toni???

More to come soon, so stay tuned!
XOXO, Pcasso

REMAIN FAITHFUL AND REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

It's been a long time since I've written anything but I've been extremely busy lately. I am involved with a group which is called "Remain Faithful" and am on the Board of Directors. We are a group of orthodox Episcopalians who believe the Bible to be the revealed Word of God which contains all things necessary for salvation as well as wisdom for Godly living. We are comprised of and led by lay Episcopalians. We are committed to speak the truth in love, communicating clearly the position of faithful orthodox Episcopalians upholding the authority of Holy Scripture. We stand firm with the vast majority in the worldwide Anglican Communion in our commitment to serve our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to support orthodox Christian ideals and beliefs, and to spread the Good News of Jesus' gift of salvation to all.

Since there is a lot of turmoil in the Church at the present time, we are standing together to try to answer any questions that people within the Anglican Communion might have about what we believe and what we do not.
Many of us have been working very hard putting together a position paper and putting in many hours trying to inform our parishioners about the necessity of staying together and learning the truths. I am the co-chairman of the recruiting phase of this and it has taken up most off my time.
Before I became involved with this project, I painted a small painting for my oldest grandson, Nicholas. He is also the biggest of the boys as you can see in this photograph!




He has been helping us with a lot of things around our house, so I decided to paint him this little painting of sushi since it is one of his favorite foods. I'm going to do a series of small paintings for his kitchen in the style of an artist I admire that is featured in one of the on line Daily Painters groups.




In the midst of my church work, we took a break and went to Austin and San Antonio for a few days. As a child, I spent time each summer with my cousin, Lucien Hunter Collins, in San Antonio. In turn, he would come to Fort Worth and visit with my family. Since we were both only children, it was wonderful to have someone to spend special time with. He was my hero and we spent many wonderful hours together.




He taught me to play Mumbly Peg, blow glass, appreciate spiders and snakes (I didn't say LIKE them, I said appreciate them) and how to be very patriotic. He was the big brother that I never had and I was his little sister. We had many wonderful times together and shared a very special relationship.
We went to Austin first. Having never spent any time there, we thought it was time we visited our wonderful state's capitol. We've been to Australia, Amsterdam, Antarctica and Argentina, but never to Austin, so this was one of the "A" places that we definitely needed to visit. We were not disappointed! You can see from the following slide show some of the places we visited. We arrived a the perfect time of day and we never had to wait and the tours we took had minimum people in them. On Sunday morning we went to a young friend's home in the Barton Creek area and had a wonderful brunch and visit with her and her family.





Their daughter had graduated from high school the night before so it was a time of celebration. Their home is lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Her Mother and I have been friends for many years and we attended her wedding in Chicago many years ago so it was like a reunion.
When we left Austin, we drove to San Antonio to a wonderful resort and spa. The bottom line is that we had 5 days of R&R, were pampered, well fed and left that area as happy campers.

The first time Frank visited San Antonio with me, he was very surprised to find that the Alamo is in the middle of town. He'd watched too many John Wayne movies and expected it to be out in the middle of nowhere. All of the history is still there, but the building is now surrounded be high rises.


After the siege, the building was nearly in ruins. Little attempt was made to restore it, and on January 13, 1841, the Republic of Texas passed an act returning the sanctuary of the Alamo to the Roman Catholic Church. After the annexation of Texas, the United States claimed the ruined building, which was used for quartermaster purposes by the Army until the Civil War. During the Civil War the Confederacy used the building, but after the war, the United States government reclaimed the building and used it until 1876.
The ownership of the building was in dispute for much of the later half of the 19th century. In April 23, 1883, the State of Texas officially purchased the church building from the Catholic Church and gave it to the city of San Antonio with the provision that the city should pay for the care of the building. From the 1890s through 1905 two women made themselves responsible for the preservation of the site: historian and teacher Adina De Zavala, and philanthropist Clara Driscoll, who acquired the site with her own personal funds. The two women later clashed over the treatment of the convent. Driscoll wanted some of the internal walls removed, while De Zavala wanted them to remain intact.
On January 25, 1905, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution purchasing a part of the mission occupied by a business concern, with the further instruction that the purchased property and the church building be put in the custody of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, who currently maintain the building. De Zavala barricaded herself in the building for three days in a successful attempt to prevent commercial exploitation. The building has been restored on several occasions, most notably for the Texas Centennial in 1936. It was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960. That's your Texas history lesson for the day ;-) In fact, I think it might be time for a cocktail since I've put your brain on overload!

We had dinner our last night at a very exclusive restaurant on the resort premises called The Antlers Lodge and enjoyed one of the nicest meals that we have had in a long time. I had a trio of lamb, scampi and tenderloin and Frank had pheasant.

The presentation was lovely and the food was unbelievably delicious. It was the perfect way to end the trip.




People think I'm crazy when I take photographs of the food when I'm in a restaurant, but if anyone ever says anything, I'll just tell them that I'm a food critic. Who knows ... maybe someday I'll have a meal comped!

The next morning we got up very early so we could make the drive back to Fort Worth and attend a board meeting of Remain Faithful that afternoon. It was a long day and we were very happy to finally get back home.
I'll be very busy with church work the next few weeks and it's almost time for our summer trek to Santa Fe. We will leave in a couple of weeks and will be in New Mexico until the end of July. I'm taking both my laptop and my paints, so I will be busy there doing things that I love to do such as eating enchiladas, having a martini or two, going to movies and the opera and visiting with friends. I'll definitely be blogging from there, so stay tuned and travel with us!
XOXO, Pcasso

San Antonio and Austin