The Hostess With The Mostest

China Economic Review reports, "Women hoping to become hostesses at next year’s Olympic Games medal ceremonies must meet a set of criteria which might be thought to be male chauvinistic: no tattoos, no big bottoms, and cut down on the earrings."

No tattoos.....check

Don't wear earrings.....no problem

No big bottoms......Uhhhhh......damn!

It's a good thing I'm going to China to teach and not be a hostess. The above photograph is a rendering of the Olympic Stadium called the "Birdnest" by locals. Just in front of it, the square building with blue tint, is the Water Cube and will house all the swimming/diving/water events.

Aunt Millie!

This is Aunt Millie. My birthday dinner was made all that more special because of her attendance. Since I was her designated driver, we didn't worry about all that beer she drank! Aunt Millie is.....well, in Lucy Blue fashion, Aunt Millie has celebrated over 40 anniversaries of her 40th birthday. She's dealing with some health problems at present but she's a real trooper and she is who I want to be just like (if I could be so lucky to live as long).

Last night was a great night of good friends, good food, and good fellowship! What more could a girl in her 40's ask for?

Today, It's All About Me!

Kisses to everyone! :)

It's the sixth anniversary of my 40th birthday! Happy Birthday to me! This morning my son said, "You're how old? 53?" Such a kidder. Although today was a busy work day I did have a couple of surprises: a gift card to a favorite restaurant, a CD, a homemade birthday card. I even got to take my son out to lunch! No, no, just kidding.

Tonight I'm meeting 7 special friends for a fabulous dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant. I'll take lots of photos!

Yes, Lucy, There is a Santa Claus!

Whew! I'll be able to make it in China after all!

By 5:00 today I'll be $175 poorer. But my car will be boasting 2 new tires. Would you like to buy it?

Next Tuesday is the 6th anniversary of my 40th birthday and there is a nice big dinner party in the works at Altruda's. And, of course, I'll be having what I always have: Salciccia Melanzani (for you non-Italian speaking folks that's "sausage eggplant"). I've eaten at Altruda's probably 15-20 times and I've never once ordered anything different. I came close once. In the end, however, I figured why take the chance on having anything less than an excellent dining experience for my tastebuds.

A Favorite Author, A Favorite Activity

May Sarton is one of my favorite writers. Although a poet, novelist and journalist, I enjoy her journals most. I also have a couple of unusual connections to Ms. Sarton in that a good friend of mine in Nashville worked for a dear friend of Sarton's, H. Sharp (whom May referred to as the "Queen of Tennessee") and a friend/professor here at UT, M. Kallet, edited a book of writings on Sarton's poetry and also visited May at times (Sarton was M's daughter's godmother). I wish I could have written to or met May Sarton. She died in 1995, just a year or two after Ms. Sharp gave my friend Sarton's first journal "Plant Dreaming Deep" to read and P. passed it on to me. I was hooked and eventually collected nearly all of her journals and a couple of her novels. I've also read Sarton's letters to Juliette Huxley, which were absolutely beautiful. If I move to China, I will most likely travel with very few books, perhaps only a few paperbacks. Sarton will definitely be among them.

The beautiful little beaded pouch is from Nana and is now what houses my cell phone.

I've been swimming after work for the last four days. So relaxing and refreshing. When I get to the pool I can't wait to drop my towels on a chair and get in the cool water. It's usually fairly deserted. This week, however, hordes of young kids have been invading the pool in the early evenings due to special camps that UT hosts over the summer. Yesterday evening it was young 10-12 year old boys. If I were a 10 year old girl I probably would have thought I had died and gone to heaven as these boys hooped and hollered and had a grand old time in the water. But I'm not. So I didn't.

I Love Khachapuri!

Khachapuri is well-known in Georgia (Republic of) and is cheese-filled bread!

N and Nana flatten out the balls of dough.

Then they wrap the dough around the cheese balls (combo of 1 egg, mozzarella and feta cheeses)

Then it gets flattened back out carefully and put in a medium-hot pan (the cheese is now in the middle! Yum)

The end result is absolutely delicious. We made five of these last night! There was only enough left for N to take some for his lunch today (which I suspect he ate for his breakfast!) N is also figuring out ways to add pepperoni on the inside!

It's good to have Nana back in Knoxville. Wonder how many times I can get her to cook for me by whining that I may not enjoy her cooking for one whole year?

Two Leave, One Returns

Last Friday at 5:00 in the morning I took Tracy and Amy to the airport. The next day I picked up Nana, returning from a trip to the Republic of Georgia, her home country, for three weeks.
She brought me these delicious candles! ha ha No, they're not candles, but they LOOK like candles, don't they? Hand-dipped candles. They are CANDIES! They are filled with peanuts and walnuts and gooey stuff and the outside is sugary and you eat the whole thing....except the string, of course. I've never seen anything like this! Isn't it interesting? Nana says these are about .50 a piece. They are really good!

Yep. Just like a candle!

Oh, and she brought me a handful of Ukrainian, Russian, Georgian chocolates and hard candies! You gotta love a friend who will haul chocolate back from halfway around the world for you! :)

This is the inside of the darkest one. It's walnuts and it's delicious! You're just going to have to trust me!

The thin amber-colored ones have hazelnuts in them. I can't figure out how they strung the hazlenuts, though. Odd.

Nana bought this little Georgia clay bowl back with her. She's going to keep all her "found" money in it! :)

She also brought this beautiful elephant pillowcase cover back for herself!

See? I didn't kill Nana's plants while she was gone.

And she even brought back a Georgian drinking horn for my brother, who was jealous of mine! ha

Tracy and Amy are safely in Boston now in their new 2 bedroom apartment. It's on the third floor of a house and they have a wonderful landlord couple who lives on the first floor. The landlord has already helped them out by taking them to a couple of store.

Amy is around 9.5 lbs. now and she'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow. Tracy and Hua have promised me they will send lots of photos and videos. They better! :)

So a dear friend left town and a dear friend returned to town. And soon....this dear friend may be leaving for a year in the Middle Kingdom! How exciting is that?

Lovey Doveys

Oh, to be six and have Madam Fifi (fee-fee) perform magic at your birthday. She came to one of my birthday parties. I forget how old I was. I think around 7-9. Sadly, Madam Fifi is gone now. But oh how she put on a show. We loved her. Twenty years later, we loved her again!