THEY LIED, IT ISN'T COOLING DOWN

Today was to be several degrees cooler. Well, it wasn't. It was as hot as Monday. It is now 11:30 P.M. and it is 76 degrees. We did turn off the AC, but the upstairs is hot and around 79. It will be another night not hot enough for AC and not cool enough to be comfortable. The weather people say tomorrow should be 10 to 15 degrees cooler. They better be right. I have worn all three of my short sleeved tops. Until I wash clothes again, I am out of hot weather clothes.

MONDAY, WEDDINGS, SCHOOL, AND STILL HOT

Today, it was 95. Broke the record for this date by 9 degrees. It is 10:45 and it is 76 degrees. Doesn't sound bad does it? Well, on a normal night it would be in the 50's. Too damn hot.

School was hot, dripping wet hot. I did paper work, graded papers, organized papers to go home. And I worked one on one in reading and math. One little girl has come so far. She is so immature ( I know she is 6, how mature can she be?) she has the attention span of a gnat, has a 100 reasons why she can't do the work. Sometimes she refused to read or do anything. But she is finally trying.

We worked on math and reading today. She was adding numbers like 10 +8. Most kids have to count every number to get to 18. She knew you just change the the zero. She understood. YEAH! Then she read a little book to me and totally understood it. And then the big test: Dolch word list. This is sight words such as once, was, could, should. These are words that don't sound out well. She nailed the lists. I told her what a great job she was doing. She explained to me she has a tutor now and now her brain is finally working, stuff is going in and now she can remember it. She was so proud of herself. This is why I get up early every Monday and work with the little ones. I really feel I have helped her.

I have complained about the Clerk from Hell, she isn't our only problem. The clients are just as bad. They put the info in the computer, they then check the license when we print it out, NOT. We had one we printed the license 3 times, and probably should have 4 times. The couple bought the license and came back in the afternoon with their witness. Problem, the witness had signed the license, yet hadn't seen the wedding ceremony yet. We reprinted the license and the couple resigned it. As I waited for the wedding room I noticed the witness' name (who was the groom's mother) was spelled one way as the mother and another way as the witness. I asked her which way was correct. She didn't have her glasses so couldn't read it. I spelled it for her. Her son said the second name was correct. We reprinted the third time, fixed the names to match. I did the ceremony. Mother signed and wrote her name a third way. We sent it in the state anyway.

IT IS HOT, REALLY HOT

Today at my front door, in the shade, it was 88 degrees. We live in the cool part of the Bay Area. We usually have lovely cooling fog this time of year. It burns off and it might get up to 70 degrees ( which is too hot for me) and comes back in at night. It is only April, this is the kind of weather we have in September or October. When we do get a little bit warm, the temperature will drop 15 to 20 degrees by early evening.

I nearly cut the air conditioner on today. The house wasn't hot, but it wasn't comfortable. We had guests, I was cooking, two ovens going, and burners on. Not nice in the kitchen. Did I say it was hot? Well it was.

Marty was showing friend Janet R and her husband Frank how to divide cymbidium orchids. I stood in the shade with a sun hat on. They were in the sun working. I brought water, beer, and deviled eggs to help them keep up their strength. We were all wilted by the time we sat down to lunch.

Later this afternoon I have been sitting with the fan aimed at me. As I said, I don't do heat. I just went out to check the temperature. I thought I would open up and let the house cool down. At 7:10 P.M. it was 83 degrees. It is still cooler inside, just not cool. Tomorrow is to be hotter.

Marty in San Francisco

Today Marty went into San Francisco to get a hair cut and to buy house slippers.

He went to several stores for the slippers. If I had been asked I could have told him, slippers are mainly sold at Christmas. The rest of the year, they are hard to find. He did finally find what he wanted, and they were on sale AND that price was marked 50% off. Maybe this is the time of year to buy slippers.

As to the word finally up there. I am Southern, I hear it as finely, and I wrote it that way. I kept looking at it, I knew it was wrong. And finally I figured it out.

Marty goes to a barber, Joanne, whose shop is in a hotel. Since the first of the year she has been looking to rent the other chair. (She is just a little persnickety about who works in her shop.) A woman (let's call her Betty) recently interviewed and Joanne thought she could work with Betty. But before she could start working Betty had to prove she knew how to shave someone. One of the hotel employees agreed to be the guinea pig. Betty lathered up his face and then pulled out her razor. It was a disposable razor. Joanne yelled stop and get out.

Still looking for a barber.

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!!!!!

I have mentioned my niece blogs also. I put her blog on the side and said go read it. Now you have to read it.

A great article has been written about her son. I am thrilled for him for a couple of reasons. It is great to be recognized for your basketball skills on the internet. And now maybe he will get that college scholarship we want for him.

Go to her blog and then on to the link she provides.

Kiel, Aunt Janet is so proud of you.

STILL SEVEN!!!

This is your American Idol report.

Last night AI ran over again, even with the revamping of the judging. They just need to cut the stupid lead in to each singer. The wonderful Adam brought the house down, Allison was sooooooooo wonderful. This is a 16 year old child and she has the stage presence of a seasoned performer, and her voice, oh my. Matt did great, even Anoop did well for a change. Chris or is it Kris?? was fabulous. And then there was Lil. Every week she gets worse. Danny was good as he consistently is.

Tonight your bottom three? Anoop, YAY! Lil, and Matt. At this stage with only 7, someone you like is going to be in the bottom three. Matt was good, even if I don't like him. Danny probably was not as good as Matt on this particular night. But Americans vote for lots of reasons: voice, past history, this performance, good looks, sad life.

They announced that Anoop was safe. Damn, damn, damn. He HAS to go home. Last week after shrugging off Kris ( they were the bottom two and Kris tried to hug Anoop in a we will get through this way last week) in a very rude way, his arrogance is up my nose. And he mouths off in a very rude way to the judges.

Lil and Matt hold each other and it is Matt who is in the bottom. He sings for the chance to be saved. Marty and I say he needs to go, even tho Lil was worse. He is not consistent. Simon says Matt you can't win this contest. Lots of boos. And then they use their one time save. Matt is safe.

Next week TWO will go home. There are no saves left.

WEDDINGS AND A NEW TYPE

This afternoon was easy, no big push, just one wedding after another. I did none the first hour or so, and then around 2:30 business picked up. I only did 5 weddings. I know to some that sounds a lot for an hour and a half. But I keep comparing now to last summer and fall when we were doing 15 or more in an afternoon. That was when we were allowed to do same sex marriages. We had heterosexual and same sex couples. Our client base has been cut in half.

The couples today were sweet, in love, and fun. One couple really stands out though, for a couple of reasons. The bride did not know she was getting married today, until the groom told the clerk and her. In the elevator she looked at him and said, " If I had known we were getting married I would have dressed better." She had on a sweat shirt, a baseball cap, and jeans. No rings during the ceremony ( they already had done that a long time ago), no camera. I offered them a couple of types of ceremonies. And she said do you have a broomstick ceremony? Yes, I did.

This is an old marriage custom with some African Americans. We have a ceremony and we have an old fashioned decorated broom. The bride was happy that I could do the ceremony. The ceremony is basically traditional, except for a couple of poems, and the broom. We laid the broom in front of them and then did the ceremony:

In good days and bad days, no matter the weather

I join this man and this woman together.

Let no one cause any turbulence or thunder

To put this man and woman asunder.

Then I did the traditional ceremony. After I pronounced them, another poem:

I therefore announce you both the same.

Be good, live long, and keep up your name.

The broomstick is jumped, and the world is wide.

You're married now, so kiss the bride.


And they then jumped the broomstick.

SCHOOL TODAY

I volunteer in a first grade classroom. I do pretty much anything Ms. H wants me to do. Check papers, sort the week's classwork alphabetically and assemble it to go home.I work one on one in any subject that a child needs help.

Today I was lucky enough to read an incredible book to the class. There has not been a book read this year that captured the attention of this class as this book did. These are lovely children, just a little busier than most. We have the bouncers, the can't sit stills, the talkers, the stir it up ones, we have children with the attention span of a gnat. This is a difficult class to control and to get to listen at the same time. This book did it.

Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon is beautifully illustrated, written so well, and has a purpose. The purpose is to show we can have different life styles and still be friends. It is probably not PC. It talks about dragons that eat pretty princesses. And the dragons love to eat knights in their crunchy armor. It shows a dragon about to be beheaded. It talks about war. The children loved it. They all sat and listened, they answered questions, they begged for the pictures to be shown again. They were enthralled. And I loved the story too.

Check out the website. Read the first two chapters. Click to see more pictures, play the song. If you have primary age children or grandchildren, this is a book to buy.

Blogs

A friend from college has started a blog. I haven't seen him since maybe 1966. But through Facebook we connected. And now he blogs. It should be very good. He is a college writing instructor and a theater critic.

But the reason I loved his first blog today, it was all about food. Well, he had family and church in there. But food was and is the star today. And you all know I am a foodie.


Check out Roger Drew's blog.

So very civilized

We had such a civilized day today.

The alarm went off at 7:30 and Marty turned it off. Then he got back in bed. I said are you declaring a holiday, and he said yes. We got up at 10:20. It was wonderful to sleep that late. That is about the only perk of being self employed, you set your own hours.

We read our three newspapers, had our juice, pills, and coffee (for Marty), and then decided whether to have lunch. We decided to wait until I cleaned the bathrooms and Marty did a little work. We had lunch at 1:30. Marty did a little more work. I played on the computer. At 3:10 we left to go to see a movie, Duplicity. Very good, fun, and convoluted. I can't tell you about it, that would ruin the fun of it.

We got home close to 7:00. I then made my wonderful Fresh Tomato Soup. (secret ingredient, balsamic vinegar). We have since watched TV. Some mindless and some educational. Dirty Jobs is so too educational. I learned how to milk the venom from a black widow spider tonight.

All in all a lovely, fun, civilized day.