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I was a little nervous about this weekend as it was Edda’s birthday on Sunday and Jeremy wasn’t going to be around. Years ago, I made Jeremy promise that he wouldn’t be gone on Edda’s birthday because I’d feel blue about just how different Edda was from other 8, 10 or 12 year olds, so I was kind of ready to feel that way as well this year (we did talk through Jeremy’s absence and he could have been home, but I thought spending time with Vince on the left coast was more important this year) but I didn’t feel that way at all this year. I felt gloriously loved and Edda felt loved and was so happy this entire week.

Alan, Hai and Viv came – last minute almost – to spend the night on Saturday to squeeze in cherry blossom viewing on Sunday. And I had the best time – they came in late on Sat night (like almost 10 pm) and we stayed up talking and looking through old college photos until almost 1 am. And then the next day, we had a celebratory breakfast with Edda for her actual 20th birthday.

I do get nervous about hosting people without Jeremy because I rely so heavily on him for the cooking/food part, but I think after years of watching Jeremy, I was able to pull this off without too much trouble and I bought all the things I wanted for breakfast – bagels, beautiful fruit and I made all the eggs – cheesy and hard boiled. Jeremy has a very involved and complicated coffee set up (not a Keurig) – so I had to get him to email me instructions (because I don’t drink coffee because all of you coffee drinkers are addicted and can not function without a cup and if there was a zombie apocalypse and they stole all the coffee, I would be fine and all you would be going through withdrawal and acting like the exact zombies that were trying to take over the world) and in the morning, I pulled Alan aside to the setup and said – OK, you’d like some coffee and here’s Jeremy’s set up, does any of this look familiar to you? And we happily stumbled through making a single cup of coffee.

They wanted to get up and out early, but they didn’t get going until almost noon and not after 5 minutes that they left, Nat showed up with this elegant, handmade strawberry cake.

And we all ate cake together for lunch! And Nat said the sweetest thing – she’s about 6 months pregnant as she said she met her husband and is going to have a baby all because Edda brought her here to the US. And it’s true, Edda brings people together and I hope it continues for-evah. And then Ning stopped by with some flowers and we chatted about an upcoming trip we are taking together soon!

I tucked in a run on the treadmill and then prepped for Sunday night dinner (I made Mexican lasagne and rice and beans) and Colleen brought this enormous beautiful cake (to feed 20…we were only 7) and it was a lot of fun to chat and talk and they left a 8 pm.

I have a bunch of birthday hats including this one which Christine wore at dinner. And we laughed and sang together and it was a lot of fun. Thank you all for making it such a special day for Edda and me.

Jeremy is in Davis (well, he was in Davis, now he’s driving towards Oregon) and got to take Vince and pals out to dinner – Mexican? I guess with the chips and salsa on the table. These are soon to be professional engineers! They will be responsible for water safety, genetic engineering, manufacturing compliance, etc. No biggies. Hahaha. Please take care of all of use as we age and start yelling – get off my lawn! Jeremy is taking Vince and Dani on a short spring break trip to see Seth and Emy and then winding around some beautiful coastline and will be back soon. Soon-ish.

My parents took Edda and friends out for her birthday dinner at the new lively Shake Shake near their house. It was fun, they have a new Korean burger which Briana did partake of. My mom marveled at the touch screen ordering system. My dad spent a bit of time math tutoring which (paired equations), honestly, was super cute and adorable. My mom told him he was teaching it wrong and to do it the other way and then my dad was like – you teach her then! and then my mom closed her mouth. But then later he backtracked and retaught it my mom’s way. Classic. Brings back childhood memories.

Then we went to my parents house for cake which Edda was super keen about. Look at that excitement.

This is the same cake that I had last week with Gene. Edda was like – get that in my tummy.

Edda’s birthday week is starting already. Her 20th (!) birthday is on Sunday and school had their celebration yesterday.

School makes me very happy :). And Edda too.

Cupcakes and cheese balls. A week of crazy food.

So, Jeremy’s on this long business trip and spring break trip with Vince and Dani, so he’ll be gone almost two weeks. Jeremy tries to not travel so much, but this time, the timing of spring break and his meetings kind of necessitated this lengthy bit away from the house. Usually, in the past, I’ve tried to “keep up” with everything while he’s gone, but not this time. I’m taking half days off of work, I’m letting school buy her lunches instead of me packing them and I’m calling friends and hanging out outside and playing guitar and going for runs. I’m letting the dishes pile and the kitchen get messy, but I do find enough time to make the house neat every 36 hours or so. Also, in the past, I’ve devolved into eating frozen pizza and ready-made meals for dinner, and this time, I’m learning to make super simple, healthy dinners for me and Edda. Mostly one sheet wonders (baked chicken with green beans) or a simple baked salmon with roasted acorn squash – with only salt, pepper and olive oil for seasoning. That’s it. No extra spices or marinating or anything. Just unpack it from the package throw it on an baking sheet, salt, pepper and olive oil and into the oven until it’s done. Jeremy sets a high bar for home cooked weeknight meals, but I’m learning to lower the bar but also eat like I want to eat.

I’m generally a godless person, but I make exceptions in times of great tragedy or great beauty. I suppose god would forgive me for being so fickle and not loyal because I can be stubborn.

Dave introduced me to this game called Leaf Blower Revolution. It’s something called an incremental game? Anyways, the entire goal is to rid your lawn of leaves. I’m not yet sure that it is compelling enough for me, but I’m having a great time talking about it with Dave.

OMG, Whole Foods has this (new?) delicious chocolate cake – called chocolate explosion or chocolate effusion or chocolate eruption and it is so so good. Delicious. Moist, crunchy, light, creamy and so chocolatey. Christine brought it to Sunday night dinner last night and we all loved it. And then Gene and Bette (both, but more Gene) picked at it for 30 minutes while the conversation kept on keeping on. I was like – you sure you don’t want a second piece? – and he was like – no just the flower or a bit of frosting. At the end, no one took the cake because, well, it really was as if Gene licked it all over.

Gorgeous day yesterday here in the DMV. Eliana was back from vacation, so she and Edda went out for some St. Patrick’s Day fun, and I headed towards nature with Elka. A 2.5 hour hike and I was on a Pokemon mission – one of my tasks is to catch 200 pokemon in a day (I usually catch about 10 a day), so I spent the working on this made-up goal and finished it about 3/4 through the hike.

I also had time to go thrifting which is just my favorite, really. I got a couple of mugs (to turn into planters) and baskets (for organizing). And a deck of cards – I’m thinking of practicing some magic?

Jeremy’s in berkeley with his high school friends. He accidentally left all his shirts in the Sacramento hotel (whoops). So he needs to buy some shirts today.

Vince is going to go to UC Irvine for grad school. He found out late Thursday afternoon and are all very excited for him and can’t wait to see what this new chapter brings. He’s so incredibly happy and eager to go start in the fall. It was a tough admissions season for him as this was his only congratulatory letter (after it was initially and, we think, erroneously a you are on the waitlist letter), but he needed only one and we are all thrilled. As someone said – it makes it easy to decide. He’s really blossomed into his scientific self starting the tail end of sophomore year, it’s a joy to see. He likes research and labs and classes and teaching and it’s all good.

We like to compare rent and stipends as he’ll be the third generation to go to grad school in engineering on the Lee side.

My mom got a $200 monthly stipend and her rent was $50 a month which included phone, maid service and fresh linens. My fathers was $400 a month with $90 rent. Mine was a monthly stipend of $1900 with a monthly rent of $420 which might have included phone (land line – I did not have a cell phone in grad school. No one did.) and bathroom cleaning, but no linens. Vince’s will be $2800 a month stipend and he expects to pay about $800 a month in rent.

He’s going to be off on his own soon! I’m not going to buy him any more pants or shoes or cell phones. It feels weird to just send him off like that, but it is as it should be.

It was so gorgeous yesterday. I always love fall the most and spring second, but I’m loving this spring bloom. I planted some azaleas yesterday that I got as a gift. There is a little patch in the garden where I plant all of my plant gifts that can be planted – Hyacinth, teeny-tiny daffodils and now this azalea.

Jeremy made it to Sacramento and he’s not traveling light. He had to take an Uber XL to the airport. He can’t even blame Edda for all his luggage weight.

Bob and Katherine got a pair of puppies! These are rescues and they are not related, though they seem well matched. White one with brown patches is Whimsey and brown one with white patches is Bunter. We are having a fun time facetime-ing with the puppies.

Jeremy is off to CA for business and pleasure. He’s gone for almost 2 weeks (kind of inadvertently), but we’ll be fine here at the mother ship. I gave him a hair cut and eye brow trim yesterday before he left.