February 2005 Archives

Born today just after 5PM

6lbs 5oz 18 inches

Mother and baby are doing fine. More to follow in the days and weeks ahead.

Congratulations Angela and Joey

We had Cream of Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches last night. It is still my all time favorite comfort food combo. How did that ever get started? I've seen it on a Campbell's commercial but Mom was serving it to us long before I ever saw that commercial.

Chef Aaron is in the house. I bought Aaron a Junior Cookbook last week at the scholastic book fair that I worked at his school. He made Tortellini Alfredo last night that was out of this world. It had fresh broccoli in it. The sauce was delicious. He is on a role. Last week, his first concoction from that cookbook was French Toast for my birthday. It was so good. I loved coming home to a meal last night. I want that often. He also got fixings for smoothies at the grocery yesterday. I don't mind him at all puttering around the kitchen. He made fluffy scrambled eggs for me this morning and buttered toast which he arranged just so. I am so impressed with him. I hope this phase doesn't pass too fast.

Happy Birthday to one and all!!! It sounds like there is never a dull moment aound your LA neighborhoods! I have been out of commission for the last almost three weeks. It started with Haytham, who had a fever for five days. I suffered through a nasty cough and cold that I still haven't been able to shake and then a week ago Friday Omar got sick. I had class Friday night, came home at 9:30, took Omar to the ER where they gave him fluids, 'cause he was dehydrated, a breathing treatment and said he had bronchitas and influenza. We got home at 3a.m., I snoozed for awhile and then it was back to class at 8a.m. It was Aminah's turn in the ER Sunday night - same routine - same influenza. They've been out all week and now it looks like Asiyah is getting it! The children in my class have been dropping like flies - one day last week I had three alseep in the classroom, three in the nurses office and four were at home sick. I want to throw a bottle of bleach over my entire house and get rid of these ugly bugs. Hyder has escaped the crud - he's never home long enough to catch anything and Hamzah moves too fast to catch anything! It's been fun keeping up with the news - and I really enjoy the birthing stories. As far as I can remember my mom can only remember being drugged and waking up with ice packs strategically placed.
Exciting things that have happened - Asiyah cut almost eighteen inches off her hair - she is going to donate her pony tail to "Locks of Love".
Aminah bought a digital camera - from her babysitting money - so I am hoping to get some pictures up on the blog soon!

Happy Birthday, Janine

Thank you so much for your caring about and maintaining this blog for us all to communicate, Robbie. May you have all that you wish for and may this be one of the happiest days ever.

Sorry about your grapefruit-size knee and your e.r. visit the other day. May you find permanent relief for that condition.

I wish I could upload a cake with candles. How does one do that? No, don't tell me.

Christina was valiantly fighting a nasty virus, a cold probably. She looked good, though, and we all know it is better to look good than to feel good. Do you know what I am saying? I think you do. She looked mahvelous.

This baby got passed around like a hot potato after Julia got her fill. She was so adorable and perfect. She never made a peep. I don't understand how that happens.

I was warned about putting any pictures of Mom up here without intense scrutiny. I complained that she wouldn't like any picture. She admitted that was true.

Polina, and her brothers went to work with Scott for the day. She came in at the end like a breath of fresh air. She is so cute. We like boys too. Joe and Jimmy were just as precious. Sorry I don't have any pictures of them. It was a girlie day.

Angela looked beautiful this past Saturday. Elizabeth had a corsage for her that never came out of the refrigerator the whole time. It was such a lovely event. Good food and cake too. I must have said "that's so cute" a gazillion times.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Robbie -- I know what a romantic you are so this caught my eye this morning while reading the paper. It's an invitation to celebrate Valentine's Day with Shakespeare, seduction and a natural reduction, a love sonnet soiree on Monday, February 14, 7 - 10 p.m.

Here's the menu, six courses paired with wine:

Hors d'Oeuvres
Roasted Red Peppers Bisque
Shrimp and Pesto Ravioli
Grilled Yellowfin Tuna
Herb Crusted Lamb Chops
Milk Chocolate Rose Petal Jam Tart

Love sonnets will be performed by the Shakespeare Festival at Tulane.

How about it? It's only $150 per person and look at all you get. It says that reservations are also available for Valentine's Day in the 1st Floor Bistro, but I would guess there are no sonnets with that.

I'm always thinking of and looking out for my children.

This guys eyes really sparkled. I was so far away I couldn't tell until I downloaded him. He's our new wallpaper. He beat out Marisa by one vote! Kevin

This has to be one of the prettiest celebrity grand marshals ever. Gene Simmons was on the following float. He would have made Sandra Bernhart look beautiful. I'll spare you the comparison. Kevin

Laura's Handiwork.

Scott sent me this image of David at his wrestling match. David did very well according to Sue. David's the one in green. He is bound for the state championships. Congratulations, David.

I've already bored the CrabAppleLane Blog with pictures of sunsets so I'll put one or two here. I love them. We have been having spectacular sunsets in Louisiana. This image was taken about 30 minutes ago near our house in Bush. Open country expanses make for great sunsets but the urban sunsets have been equally dramatic. Enjoy.

Elizabeth’s comment yesterday about the waitress at Ferrara’s Restaurant in New York being unimpressed with her being a Ferrara reminded me of a story. Patsy and I were on our second trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando. Our first trip was our honeymoon. Now, it was December 1984 and Epcot, although not quite finished, had just opened. We were in the Italian Pavilion and it was lunchtime so we decided to try Alfredo’s. Alfredo’s is quite famous. Ever heard of Fettuccine Alfredo? This is the guy and they make their own fresh pasta on the premises. You can watch them. That was enough for us. It was not enough for Alfredo’s, though. Tables for two are reserved weeks in advance and we had just walked up. There was an elderly couple from New Jersey also waiting. They asked us to join them because tables for four were more readily available. They were very nice so we gladly accepted.

As we started telling each other a little about ourselves, they latched on to my last name. All of the Italians they knew in New Jersey must have been recent immigrants. Assuming I knew the language of my ancestors, they started speaking to me in Italian. Ciao and spaghetti is about the extent of that language within my grasp. I took German in high school. I was a bit embarrassed that I had to stop them but we had a laugh about that. They spoke to the waiter from Naples in Italian, ordered in Italian, and toasted each other throughout the meal in Italian. Forgot to mention: They, themselves, were not Italian.

The man had been in Italy during the war. A bit homesick, he had carved his name and his wife’s name into the base of a mountain just outside of Florence like any teenager carving those things into a tree. Sometime after he did that, the Allies bombed that mountain and everything around it. He had not been back to Italy since that time until the summer before we met them that December. He and his wife smiled at each other as he told us his carving from 40 years ago was still there.

Yes, it's Ferrara's Supermarket. It is on Elysian Fields ( The same Elysian Fields Tennessee Williams wrote about ) and hasn't changed much from the outside in 30 years. Though I have been in most of the buildings within a square mile of this one, I don't think I've ever stepped foot in the Supermarket. I ate at Bud’s Broiler down the street from here today just after I snapped this picture. I've always wanted to go in and write a check. These days, I doubt the store clerk would even look at it. I think we’re distantly related but I forget. Mom? I surely don’t know any of them if we are.