At Last

We had such a good time at Mike's send-off yesterday evening. There's the old man now.

It was the first time I'd met the people he works with, although I'd heard about them many times before. It was fun reminiscing about the many places he's worked. As with any party, everyone was talking at once, and it was hard to hear anything. I noticed, however, that when he started talking about technology from early in his career, the room grew quiet and they all listened and laughed. In his field, new technology comes along and old falls by the wayside and is quickly forgotten. A few of the engineers there were younger than our own sons. Some of what he was describing might as well have come from the stone age as far as they were concerned.

Soon, his countdown clock will look like this:

He's going into work this morning, but mainly just to turn in his security badge and his company-provided laptop, and to say his final round of good-byes. Mike knew at a young age what he wanted to do for his career, and it is a career that has been good to him. He's been afforded many opportunities to work with smart people on interesting projects, and even to do some traveling. He has no regrets, but a lot of excitement about what comes next.

It's been hard to concentrate to get very much done. Yesterday, I made the crust for the lemon meringue pie I'll finish off today. The pie is a bit of a production, although it isn't difficult, and so I made the crust yesterday, and I'll fill it today. This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated. The crust is rolled out on graham cracker crumbs instead of the usual flour. This is so that it doesn't get soggy once it's filled with the lemon custard, but it makes it a very easy crust to work with. No sticking whatsoever. I'm not very good at this fluting business, but it looks pretty good.

It's sitting in the refrigerator for now, lined with foil. I'm walking with Sue this morning, but when I get home, I'll bake the crust and get to work on the filling and the meringue.

When that was finished, I sewed the latest Solstice block together. This one ends up at 24-1/2 inches square, so it's a big block. I made mine in colors to celebrate Earth Day.

While I was out walking around the yard yesterday, I noticed another tulip is getting ready to open. 

After the squirrels ate most of the tulip bulbs a few years ago, I despaired of ever being able to grow tulips. They haven't eaten any more of them, and now that some time has passed, the bulbs have multiplied. We end up with quite a few each spring, all blooming at different times. 

Our weather is supposed to take a turn for the better over the coming week, and Mike and I already have a few outings planned. With him retired, our outings are no longer confined to just the weekends. What fun!

We'll probably get home around the same time later this morning, and then we'll just relax for the rest of the day and have a quiet celebration of our good fortune, punctuated by pie. Sometimes quiet celebrations are the best. We started this journey shortly after we were married in 1975 when we moved to Phoenix, Arizona, so that he could attend school. After so many years, and so much water under the bridge, it's good to be right where we are today.