The Glass Menagerie

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Determined to have a “real” date night last night, Jeremy and I went to see The Glass Menagerie playing at Ford’s Theatre.  I’d never seen or read anything by Tennessee Williams – not A Streetcar Named Desire nor Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  It was delightful – I wonder why I don’t see plays more often.  I like the exaggerated voices, accents, movements that come with live-action.  (Does live-action refer only to movies – as opposed to animated?)  I also like knowing that the actors do the same performance night after night and that this high drama repeats itself over and over again.  I just finished Life After Life by Kate Atkinson which tells a tale of a woman who lives her life over and over again and small decisions along the way lead to drastically different endings – so I’ve got deja vu on my mind.

It was interesting to go see it at Ford’s Theatre – where Lincoln was shot.  Do you see the American Flag coming out of Jeremy’s nose?

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Our balcony seats were right next to the presidential balcony – you can see it with all the bunting.

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My New Place

Today is my moving day.  Mom helped me to gather all my belongings and moved in this old duplex house. After moving in, we went to the local BI-LO stores to buy grocery to put them into my refrigerator.

At lunch, we went to a local American Buffet place called “Barn Express”.  It was jammed packed.  The lady cashier thought we were from the moon or some strange place.  But, they were extremely polite.  She even handed me her business card and with handwriting on it about their business hours.

I even went to a local Wells Fargo bank to get some cash.  I also found a local Chevy car dealership where I am going to have my air bag recall fixed.

Winnsboro, SC is a world for Donald Trump and Bernie.  Their signs are everywhere.  No sign for other candidates though.

Too bad, Mom is leaving.  But, at least, last Sunday we had a wonderful Valentine’s Day together 🙂 with my budget Valentine’s balloon, flowers and vase.  It costed a total of $5.00.  Not bad either 🙂

MISC

I am going to max out my 401K ($18,000,00) plus catch-up ($6,000.00) as soon as I can.  All is in stock funds. This will provide a lot of flexibility as well as prudent financial planning with less taxable income, upfront.

I am also going to move into a duplex house tomorrow in the country side, less traffic, more room, and, above all less wake-up call noise everywhere in the extended stay hotel.  The land lord is one of our co-workers.  He paid $15,000.00 for the entire house and, yet, rents out a half with $500.00 monthly income. Good deal.  I told him that I am happy for him for his smart investment.  He is looking for the second to buy.

Mom turns my small hotel kitchen to a full blown one.  I am kind of amused what she can do. She also just finished a hand-kitted sweater for me.  And I love and wear it.

Too bad, she is leaving tomorrow (Saturday).  She will stay in China with her relatives about a month and will be back to our west coast home in Mid April.  I guess, there, she needs to take care of our “additional Master bedroom as well as the mud room” without me in the short term.  Hopefully, after my assignment and in the near future, I can join her.  As with respect to building permit, I have requested and got an extension from our City.

I plan to come back to Maryland in early Spring to do the grafting on our persimmon fruit tree.  I have ordered and got all ingredients (a grafting knife, grafting tapes and protective glue) to do the work.

Snow.

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President’s Day snow.  Vince was at a sleepover last night – pulled an all nighter and got busted playing Cards Against Humanity – which means I got busted too.  Sigh.

Vince came home and shoveled our walk and driveway.  Later in the afternoon, he mined for ice.   I don’t get it either.

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Late afternoon violin lesson.  Turned out the late-night practicing was in preparation for the HS honors orchestra.  Ten kids (all Asian) tried out and only one kid got in and it wasn’t Vincie.  Oh well.  Next time…..

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Sunday.

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Happy Valentine’s Day – I hope that you got to spend time being with or thinking about people you love and people who love you.

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It’s been a quiet weekend.  Colder than a witch’s tit as the saying goes.  The upstairs heater is having a bit of trouble keeping up, but it’s not too bad.  We’ve spent the day inside, keeping warm.

I’m having trouble finding a good book to read, I’ve started many and haven’t finished a single one this year.  This includes two books which I got more than 50% of the way through and then I abandoned.

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Katherine sent us this chocolate dessert from Poland with instructions to serve it at Sunday night dinner.

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And serve it we did!  Though it had a lot of competition – this being Valentine’s Day.  We also had chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate/mousse cake, ice cream and a box of chocolates.

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