OLD FRIENDS AND NEW

Time here in Salem has been split between old friends, like the Milans, the Gillespies, the Yagows, and Dean Pittman, owner of The Chocolate Bar, the best chocolate shop around.

And my new friends from Blue Ridge Christian Riders, the Roanoke area chapter of the Christian Motorcycle Association. They meet every week for coffee in the winter and ice cream when it gets warm. And they ride regularly. Carol and I joined about 200 other bikes for a VA Tech Memorial ride from Roanoke to the Tech campus, where we parked on the drill field below the memorial for those slain last April. A wonderful and touching time.

Later in the month we rode to the Peaks of Otter as our "Run For The Son" which is the one day of the year when all the chapters of CMA all over the world have a charity ride. Carol had to work and couldn't go, but I had a good ride with the CMA'ers.

And, of course, more time at the Church Nursery lovin' on the little ones.

Then, the end of May arrived and I headed to Washington, DC for the wedding of my niece, daughter of Mary Ann's brother on Memorial Day Saturday.

Life is Good.

STILL IN SALEM

Well,I'm not REALLY still in Salem. I've just been very very lax about blogging.

I'm in PA with Tom, Ann and the grandkids. But I'll write like it's extemporaneous and let y'all catch up.

The time is Salem has been spent catching up on friend's lives, meeting new folks at Church and spending lots of time with Carol and the kids. Her two weekday jobs, combined with getting the kids to school in the morning, means leaving the house before 7 and returning home around 6:30. So at least 3 nights a week, I go to her house and fix supper. Her kids are REALLY picky eaters and I take it as a personal challenge to change that.

With some success.

I had not made the sauerkraut chocolate cake in a long time and didn't want to take anything less than perfect to the Milan's. So I made cupcakes a couple of days before just to make sure the recipe I found on the web was the one I remembered. I told the kids, "I'm going to give you each a half a cupcake while they're still warm from the oven. But here's the deal. You have to help me make them, AND after seeing what goes in them, if you LIKE them, you must agree to at least try ANYTHING I put in front of you after that." When I stuck the open can of sauerkraut under their noses, they almost ran from the kitchen gagging. But Andrew creamed the butter and eggs, Emily measured flour, sugar, etc and we made the cupcakes. They loved them. Andrew argued and argued for another, but it was bedtime, so I told them they could have one for breakfast.

Emily still turns up her nose and rolls her eyes at things based on appearance, or even name. But Andrew got it. He tried Garlic Shrimp and decided it was too spicy. My fault, really. I do get a little heavy handed with the garlic and red pepper sometimes. He also tried salmon, and loved it. He asks for it regularly now. Whoops. Maybe we'll have to limit his taste tests to some less expensive stuff.

I mean, he REALLY gets it. On "leftover night" we were all having something different to clean out the single helpings from the fridge. I had some General Tso's chicken. He looked at the breaded chunks of chicken in sauce and asked, "What's that?" When I said, "It's deep fried 'possum guts." He enthusiastically replied, "Can I taste them?" He took a big bite. After he decided it was only "OK" I told him it was just chicken. He didn't change his verdict.

Emily is still a work in progress, but a quick "one out of two" ain't bad. And it's worth the effort to put something in front of Emily just to see her expression. If you've had a young daughter in your household, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a classic. Emily is a master of "the look".

So sorry I don't have pictures. I lost my camera. Just one more reason to "buy cheap" on eBay. I really think it's gone. But I have managed to lose things in this 34' of space that I have "found" days - or weeks - later. Oh well, I'll get another one and then the old one will definitely show up.

Life is Good.