Janet's Blog

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a can of crescent rolls, like the one pictured, and put it in the refrigerator, so I could make some Tostada Pie, which uses crescent roll dough as the crust. I noticed the can in the fridge just a few days ago, and decided to make Tostada Pie the next day. Imagine my surprise when I opened the refrigerator to get the can of dough, only to find that it was missing! I looked everywhere--behind the romaine lettuce, on the door shelves with the ketchup and milk, even in the vegetable crisper, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I pulled the freezer drawer open, and checked carefully, just in case the cylinder had rolled itself down into the freezer, but still no luck. Next I asked Victoria, and then Levi, if they knew what had happened to it, but they both insisted they didn't have a clue about the whereabouts of the missing crescent rolls. I texted Bill, but he didn't know where it was, either, even though he remembered seeing the roll can...

Here we are at home, socially isolated to prevent the spread of COVID-19, that new coronavirus that suddenly appeared in China a couple of months ago. Never in my lifetime have I ever experienced this kind of reaction to a virus. It seems as though the whole world is quarantined.  Except for Levi's therapy and an occasional trip to the grocery store, we are staying home most of the time this week, and into the near future. We are not really quarantined, since none of us are sick, but the kids and I are isolating ourselves at home to help prevent the spread of this new, nasty virus. Bill is going to work as usual, with some recently added COVID-19 protocol, in an effort to provided essential TV and internet services to the homebound people who need it now, more than ever.  Yesterday, when I took Levi to the hospital for his appointment, we had to don face masks because I drove to an appointment in Fort Collins last week; since then, at least one health care worker the...

It was a beautiful March day, that last Saturday before Daylight Savings Time lengthened our days--70 degrees, sunny, and amazingly, there was no wind. When I was hiking the Monument the day before, I thought to myself that I needed to text Meagan to bring the kids up for a hike soon, but she beat me to it.  It doesn't bother me to hike the same place two days in a row, especially when the weather is so gorgeous, and the company so stimulating, so we made plans to set off around 3:00 on Saturday, right after Ari's nap. I had estimated that the hike, a little more than three miles from the bottom of Scotts Bluff, all the way to the top, and back down again, would take about an hour. If I had doubled the time, my guess would have been closer. I had forgotten to include the short-legs factor, as well as the curiosity and snack factors. Oh, well--it was a wonderful afternoon to spend outside with Meagan and the grandkids. And we're off!  The girls ran ahead before si...

No one denied that my little brother, Danny, was smart. He spoke plainly, in complete sentences, for several months before he even turned two. He was curious about everything, often taking things apart that would have been better left alone. When he was four, he taught himself to read. After Grandpa taught him how to play checkers, he soon won more often than he lost. A few years later, he taught me to play chess, but I quit playing with him before too long, because I could never beat him. As he grew, Danny became an avid reader; when nothing else was available, he read the whole set of encylopedias, cover to cover. Danny was just three when our family moved to the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk. We lived in the main level, manager's apartment, which had a south-facing, outside door, leading to our trikes and the sandbox Dad had installed for us, as well as a large, sometimes vacant, used car lot, where we often played. Another door opened from the north side of our apartment into th...