Another Day in Paradise: The Busy Month of May: Things I Haven't Told You

Soon I'm going to write two posts, one about the patio, which is almost finished (yeah!), and one about a quilted wall hanging I made and how I went about making it. But first.... May was such a busy month and I see that I haven't told you about many of the things that happened, so let's tick them off.

We went with our friend Lotus and my BIL & SIL, John and Dawn, to a special dinner at Oak featuring soft shell crabs. Soft shell and hard shell crabs are the two things we can't get here in Boulder very easily, so it was exciting that Oak was having some flown in from Maryland to use in a fun and tasty dinner. The soft shelled crabs arrived at 3:00 pm, just in time to be ready for the multi-course dinner which started at 6:00; that's cutting it close, but it worked!

Paul's last day of school was highlighted by an event he had anticipated since he was a freshman; the paper toss. Boulder High has an interior courtyard which is a perfect space for this traditional ritual. All the Seniors stand on the stairway and throw their school papers over the railing, making a deep stack of papers on the courtyard floor. Paul has been saving his school papers for four years and was very ready for this satisfying end of his high school career. I understood his enthusiasm perfectly since I remember throwing my papers out the school bus window, the one and only time I have ever been a litter-bug. My, it felt good!

One of my last official acts as Chair of the high school's parents association for band and orchestra students was to manage the end-of-the-year music awards and banquet. 350 people were expected and the main entre (BBQ) came from a caterer and lots of people helped and everything went well, but it was still a big thing to have on my mind, and I'm glad it's over.

Much to my surprise I received this nice plaque from the teachers. Ben likes to recount to me this quote from Napoleon: "A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon." If my pleasure at receiving this little symbol of the teacher's appreciation is any evidence, Napoleon was right. I have to transfer some information and supplies to next year's Chair and run the July 19 meeting where the new board members are officially voted in, but basically I'm done. It wasn't that my work over the past three years was so hard, but thinking about it took up a lot of space in my brain.

For Ben's birthday we went down to Denver and had a fabulous dinner at Tavernetta, a new restaurant from the owner of Boulder's famous and well-rated Frasca. Ben and his good friend Ray share the same birthday and Ray had come up with the idea of having this wonderful dinner and serving a special "birth year" wine at it.

Unfortunately, the wine from the actual birth year --1955-- proved to be damaged when the cellar went to check on it, so we ended up drinking a 1956 Barolo, which was still amazing, both in its age and its taste. Here's the owner of Tavernetta, Bobby Stuckey, getting ready to pour it for us.

Since wine figured prominently in the evening's plans (we ended up drinking four bottles plus a cocktail) we all stayed overnight at the Kimpton Born Hotel which was an amazing experience all on its own. When I booked our room I told them we were celebrating, and we were upgraded to a corner room and received a lovely birthday welcome gift of dessert and champagne.

It's a modern hotel and featured modern art throughout its halls and rooms. Most of it didn't excite me, but I did like this piece.

It's made from old yardsticks! So cool.

Paul had a gig helping out doing sound at a rock concert in Colorado Springs so Dawn and I drove him down and enjoyed a fun "girl's weekend" while he worked. We were happy to spend a half day at the wonderful Cheyenne Mountain Zoo where I got to feed a rhinoceros!

On the way home we stopped at the Parker Arts and Cultural Center to see my quilt hanging in the "Contrasts" art quilt show. I was happy at how it was displayed and thrilled to be in the company of art quilters I admire.

Boulder High's theater production of Sideshow was nominated for "Best performance by an Orchestra" for the state-wide Bobby G awards, which are modeled after the Tony Awards and serve to bring honor and attention to the state's high school theater productions. I went with my friend, Sara, and her son and Paul by bus to Denver for awards night, which was fun. As the bus made its way from the downtown Boulder terminal to the various Boulder stops we kept running into Boulder High students so we had a big group of kids as we got off the bus in Denver. The awards were at the Denver Performing Arts Center and it pulled out all the stops for the kids, making it an exciting night even through Boulder didn't win any awards.

Here's Paul with his friend, Louis, looking happy even without winning the award.

We did actually have a graduation party for Paul, a week after the ceremony, and it was a lot of fun. With 22 people in the house I was way too busy to take photos, so I just have this one of the balloons. It was a beautiful evening and we were able to use the almost-finished patio, which worked out great.

The little stretches of garden on the sides of the new patio got planted about a day before the party, which was nice, and the carpenter was able to finish most of the fence and trim work. Here's Sue leading her planting crew.

We've been enjoying our neighbor's beautiful purple allium flowers as we look over the fence.

And fairly early in the month Lotus helped me get the pots planted with annuals, which look so pretty and have given me so much pleasure through this busy month.

We've generally had great weather this month and occasionally I've just had to catch my breath at the beauty of this area. Here's a photo I snapped coming out of a quilt guild meeting. You never get tired on seeing the snow capped high country mountain tops in the distance!