November and December, 2008
Nancy and Bob Murdock, Editors - murmuse@comcast.net

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MUSE INDEX Dropdown menus LINKS Previous issues What's New Who's Who Birthdays and anniversaries Muse readers' own websites Muse History Nov-Dec Photo Gallery Nancy's Quilts

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE: THE WEDDING OF TIM AND KAY (Nancy Murdock) Click THE QUEEN MARY (Nancy Murdock) Click FAMILY TIME (Nancy Murdock) Click OUR BEACH TRIP (Nancy Murdock) Click UPDATE FROM MISSOURI (Charles Frost) Click Part 2 STUDY IN BLACK AND GRAY (Nancy Murdock) Click ACCIDENT (Nancy Murdock) Click LOST (Nancy Murdock) Click NEW CUSTOM (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click KRISTA'S FIRST VIDEO (Mary Reese) Click THE COSMOS STORY (Mary Cosgrove) Click FREEZER BAG OMELETS (Barbara DiStefano) Click CAKE RECIPES (Becky Murdock) Click NEW KARAOKE SONGS (Missi Sargent) Click Part 3 JOSHUA TREE (Carl Martz) Click HUBBARDSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY (Tom Howlett) Click A LITTLE "SMALL WORLD" STORY (Valerie Davidson) Click SEPTEMBER 2008 FLAGSTAFF AND MESA VERDE VACATION (Margery Aukstikalnis) Click OLIVER FRANCIS DOANE (Teddie Doane) Click MY AUNT EUNICE (Claudia Lindsay) Click RE: SEPT-OCT ISSUE (Charles Frost) Click THANK YOU!!! (Mary Cosgrove) Click VISIT TO HISTORICAL SITE IN SALEM (Mary Cosgrove) Click

Muse Editors at Tim's wedding Gallery photo Video by Alison Colleen's 2008 birthday quilt Gallery photo Quilt index

Bride and Groom Oct. 11, 2008 Kay Clarke and Timothy Murdock

THE WEDDING OF TIM AND KAY Nancy Murdock WHERE IS THE WEDDING? Since we didn’t know where the Reef Restaurant near the Queen Mary was, we used the Reef’s instructions to get there. However, they must have assumed we were locals who understood the finer points of cruising around all the places to hide a restaurant along the shoreline. After we had gone up and over those roller coaster-like bridges a couple of times, I realized we were never going to get there without help, and the various cell phone calls had not yet yielded positive results. Remembering the excellent results of asking someone local to direct us to the Hutchinson Parkway in New York, I drove off the beaten path and into a neighborhood, over Bob’s and Mer’s vigorous protests. We had all heard that the neighborhoods in Long Beach weren’t safe. By this time, I was afraid we would miss the saying of the vows, which is my favorite part of any wedding. At the first house, I rang the doorbell and someone called from inside, “Who is it?” I gave my name and stated my need for directions to get to the Reef Restaurant. No more sounds came from the house, and the door stayed shut. Undaunted, I walked to the next house and rang the doorbell. A woman came out and asked what we wanted, and she was very interested in our predicament. She asked her husband to come out, and he immediately started naming the best route, in his opinion. They wished us well and said they would pray for the bride and groom. Before we left, we all hugged each other. This was not what we had been told to expect! But it was right in line with our NY experience. All went well until we got back to the place where we had floundered before. And yes, we floundered again, but we did it in a different direction, believing that was what we should have done previously. Eventually, Mer called our grandson Sean, who gave us some clues we really needed. It was past the time to be at the Reef, but we agreed to go anyway, since we could at least show up after the fact to wish them well. THE WEDDING: Much to our surprise, nothing had started at the Reef. We also discovered that we were among the “wedding party” and would be escorted to our seats for the wedding. I was pleased to see that my “lavender” dress (the lavender blue one I had bought for our 50th wedding anniversary) fit right in with the variations on the lavender theme. Bob, of course, looked just right in his rented tux with the lavender vest and tie. But he said later that he was very uncomfortable in his new shirt. He had bought a size 16½ inch neck, which I had suggested was one inch too short. He based his choice on the shirts he was comfortable in at home, but none of them were starched or had a necktie to add to the tightness. We had found some black shoe polish at a Long’s Drugs, so he was able to make his own shoes look more than just presentable, instead of trying to wear rented shoes. Sean looked perfect as the best man. His other grandmother, now deceased, used to say her grandsons “cleaned up well.” Robert, the oldest brother, was scheduled to be a groomsman but had to stay home with a bad case of the flu. Two of Tim’s friends were groomsmen. Our great-grandson Riley, Robert’s son and Ian’s grandson, was adorable as the ring bearer. He was an advertisement for a good reason to get married and start a family. Robert’s daughter, Payton, was unable to be the flower girl because of the flu, so Becky’s friend’s young daughter filled in very nicely. Natalie and Kay’s two sisters were the beautiful bridesmaids. Christel and her girlfriend Alison kept an eye on Riley. THE VOWS: The wedding went smoothly until it came time for Kay to agree to marry Tim, who had stated his case in loving terms as he smiled and looked right into Kay’s eyes. As the tears came down Kay’s face, the clock kept going, and no words came from her lips, we all tightened up, wondering how they would get out of this fix. I was praying for this marriage, asking God to take care of Tim and help Kay with her decision. Ian said later that he was cringing for his son, afraid that he was about to be left at the altar. Tim, arms wrapped around his reluctant-seeming bride, gave Kay her cues and finally, smilingly, persuaded his bride to respond. She said her vows – very shakily, with big tears streaming down her face. We all breathed a sigh of relief. It was the most unusual and dramatic wedding I had ever attended. I will continue to pray that they will be able to mesh their lives together. THE RECEPTION: The food was delicious and plentiful. As Bob put it, there was a humongous pasta platter for us vegetarians. The centerpieces I had helped make the night before were fine, in spite of the fact that we had some with lavender ribbon bows and some with ribbon knots. It didn’t matter that Ian had had to settle for buying a different kind of lavender ribbon in the middle of the night, when we had run out of the first kind. And the huge cake was beautiful, all white and tasty. The traditional competitions for the bouquet and garter were fierce! At one point I saw Christel, who had recently been ill, throw herself across the floor to reach the bouquet. The scene reminded me of her sister Natalie’s photos - plunging into the mud on the TV show. The garter throw was very different from the chaste tosses I had witnessed in the past. A large sign announced that this is sometimes known as something like “Another One Bites the Dust.” It was really embarrassing to watch. When Tim’s head dived under the short little dress Kay had changed into, I thought it was an error, but no – according, to Meredith, it’s a 21st century tradition. Apparently Tim was not to touch the garter with his hands. As he went up farther and farther, I couldn’t believe we were all expected to watch this. It took him quite a while. Eventually he came out with the garter in his teeth, and everyone clapped. It was the men’s turn to get competitive. I think it would actually be tamer to issue all the men swords. DANCING AT THE WEDDING: After the tussles were over, it was dance time, which I had been looking forward to. The DJ was very good. He first played some romantic songs. Bob and I danced to those, remembering our courtship. Then the music changed to rock and roll, and we really got going! Bob twirled me around, and we were back in our element. When he took a breather, I got William Clarke, the bride’s father, to dance with me a few minutes, until he could persuade his wife, Phyllis, to join him. Next we got a lively group of mainly women doing some very vigorous rock and roll. We even did the Electric Slide, which I (along with most of us) didn’t remember how to do. But it was fun, anyway. Some of the women, including Becky, Natalie, and Patricia (Sean’s girlfriend), were absolutely amazing as rockers. I was having a blast, but I couldn’t begin to get down the way they did! At one point, the DJ cleared the floor and called for Grandpa and Grandma to dance. Bob, the romantic, was happy about this! Later, we were quite startled when the DJ called for “Grandma” to raise her hand. I was out on the floor, and I wondered what was coming next. He praised me for doing all the dances and said I was his model (or something to that effect). He wanted everyone to acknowledge me, and they all clapped. It was a little embarrassing, since some people wondered why he had chosen me, when they had also danced all the time. I suspect that one of the men may have noticed I was following his moves, but not doing nearly as well as he was, especially for the Electric Slide. I have no idea why my knee held up through all of this, since it usually complains after a few minutes of even being asked to walk. And I was even wearing real shoes, not sneakers. Was it the music? The wine? Whatever, it was a nice gift! Before this wedding, we could recall dancing only twice since our 50th wedding anniversary: at my friend Amy’s wedding in 2006 (before the knee accident), and at Jason and Bevin's wedding this past July. Interestingly, we danced again on November 9 at a lavish 50th wedding anniversary party for a couple from our church. So I guess you could say we dance only at events connected with weddings!

Queen Mary Hotel Long Beach, CA

THE QUEEN MARY Nancy Murdock OUR STAY ON A HISTORIC SHIP: The original idea was that all of us would stay on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. But when we checked in after the reception was over, we found that only the honeymoon couple and Bob and I had actually come. We arrived at the same time, and I lent Kay my hooded black jacket to walk in from the parking lot, since she was shivering in the cold wind in her tiny dress, and I at least had my lightweight blue jacket to cover my arms. The wedding couple’s room was all set up, but what they had besides was in Natalie’s name, two rooms together with queen-sized beds. It was not within the range we had expected. Apparently this was the place we were all supposed to meet and relax after the wedding. The front desk was very accommodating, however. They found us a nice suite on the second deck. It had two bathrooms, a king-size bed in the bedroom, and a sitting room with a queen-sized pullout couch. But the fun thing was the hardware. It was all shiny and in great shape, but it must have been modeled on the original hardware. There were sets of four faucet handles in a vertical row here and there, especially in the bathrooms. AN UNUSUAL DINNER: We looked at the menu and decided not to eat any meals there, based on the prices. The gourmet brunch for the next morning, for example, was over $35 per person. We decided to make do with some Nabs Bob had thought to bring, and some potato chips he found to buy. We also had two chocolate bars for “dinner,” along with some water to drink. We figured we could hardly waste away after that sumptuous wedding luncheon. BRISK BREEZES: We were tired enough to choose to go to bed fairly early. I froze all night, except for the heat I got on one side from getting up close to Bob. Wind whistled in every so often. We were on the edge of the ocean, after all, so the wind was probably to be expected. And we had been warned that the nice price we got was because they hadn’t been able to get the heating/air conditioning really right in that particular room. I didn’t want to wake up Bob, so I checked the portholes and found they had swung open with the wind. I closed them, but I didn’t know how to latch them. This went on several times in the night, but I never did achieve success, which didn’t surprise me, after what the front desk had said. What I found out in the AM was that Bob had unlatched and opened the portholes in the evening, since we were rather sweaty from marching around carrying our bags and locating the room. If I had wakened him, he could have locked the windows. I never did learn how to use the latches, because in the morning we hurried to get away so we could go find a more reasonably priced breakfast. We made a connection with Tim, picked up my jacket, and left. THE LONG BEACH MARATHON: Things looked different in the morning light. There was a car show that took up a significant portion of the parking lot. I had trouble finding our rental car, but we traipsed up and down until we finally came to some remembered areas that led to success. We packed the suitcases into the trunk of the car and started out. At the beginning of the road, I had to squeeze between a bunch of cones to get out. We had talked the evening before with a woman who was in town for “the Marathon.” She was going to walk the half-marathon, but others would run the full course. Looking back, we should have asked more questions. More cones popped up, and I had to keep hitting the horn lightly to make sure the bikers, runners, and walkers didn’t swerve over into our path. We needed to get out of there as soon as possible, because the Marathon had already started and took up the only exit road! We stopped at one of the adults in charge and asked how we could get out of there and what route we needed to take to get to La Mirada. He asked us to pull over to the left – “no, not there, pull over to the next lane.” He said he would call the police to come and help me. I pulled way over and kept going, slowly. At first I thought he intended me to travel down that lane. Then I think he may have been yelling at me to stop, but I could see the handwriting on the wall by then and figured it wasn’t our fault there was no provision made for us to leave the Queen Mary’s environs. We shortly came upon another man with a book, keeping track of participants. After we told him what we needed, he routed us off to the left and told us to take the next left to the fork in the road and then take a right onto a certain highway. Using the horn a couple of times to avoid collisions got us some angry words from Marathon participants, but we finally found ourselves on the way out of that nightmare, blessing that man who had given us such usable instructions. I don’t remember details of the rest of that day. Neither of us recalls whether we ate anything more substantial for breakfast than those unsalted potato chips. But we certainly had some vivid memories!

Valerie and Larry at Becky's House Gallery photo Jerod Davidson Alison Jones and Christel Murdock Anthony Murdock Riley Murdock T.J. Clarke, Kay's brother

FAMILY TIME Nancy Murdock We were very fortunate to have lots of time with the extended family, including the bride’s family. Becky very generously welcomed us all into her home. We always had something going on: board game, pizza party, karaoke, planning what to do next, or just plain talking with each other. It had been a while since we had been out in CA, and it was great to catch up. Since Mer, Ian, and Sean are currently looking for work, we had more chance than usual to hang out. We also spent some time at Mer’s apartment, where we had a good look at the quilts, some of which are falling apart from years of use and washings. Mer made sure she pointed out that she currently has no bed-sized quilt from me. I can see this is going to have to be factored into our future. We also got a good look at her decorating scheme and saw that she has quite a knack for color and types of décor. There is a lot of pink, both light and dark, in her rooms. The “Pigging Out” quilt still shows a fair amount of bits of pink, but it is definitely in need of being replaced. Valerie was pleased to see that Mer has a small painting of a cat and a butterfly done by Valerie as a gift several years ago, nicely positioned on the vanity. And speaking of paintings, a couple of months ago I sent Valerie a photo of what I consider her masterpiece, a Minnesota scene in watercolor with exhaust trails in the cold, which Alison had photographed when she and Christel visited us. As we were mentioning the cat painting during our visits, Valerie thanked me again for sending this to her. Then she asked if there was anything left of the picture. I told her I had simply scanned the photo, so it was still complete. She explained that she was wondering if there was anything left of the original painting. That startled me, as I wondered why she thought it had been damaged. When I told her it was fine, except that it was getting a little gray for some reason, she was delighted. It turned out she had assumed that I had sent the picture to commemorate the demise of her painting, which I actually enjoy every day! I was glad Mer had mentioned the cat painting, or we would never have known to straighten this out. Now Valerie can think of the painting residing comfortably on the wall in our bedroom. It’s good to be able to get together from time to time. It was really great to see my children, grandchildren, and great-children over the course of a whole week. Valerie, Larry, and Jerod chose to stay at a hotel in Carson that was undergoing renovations and therefore a good price. When they were making the decision at home, Valerie reported, Larry said, “They don’t hammer at night.” Bob and I stayed at three places. The first two nights were at a Marriott Courtyard with an excellent breakfast that included made-to-order omelettes along with all of the juices, fruits, muffins, eggs, cereals, French toast, etc. We chose that place because they had sent me an offer based on my points, which began when we went to the conference in San Diego a few years ago. For some reason, the points keep adding up! Next was the Queen Mary. The third place was a Super Eight in Commerce, which actually had a good, free breakfast array. After one day, however, Bob found reasons to take everyone out to breakfast at someplace more elegant. After we got home, for the first nights I found myself wondering where we were staying each night. That may have been caused at least partly because we got home from our return airplane trip and two-hour shuttle ride at 2:00 AM on a day when I was supposed to work all day. I had put in my request to use annual leave for the morning, but it was an easy decision to call in for the entire day. I don’t think I got fully rested for about a week. All that excitement got me too keyed up.

Laguna Beach, CA

OUR BEACH TRIP Nancy Murdock OUR BEACH TRIP: One thing we had definitely set our hearts on was at least one trip to the beach. Always before, we had stopped at one of the beaches on our way from the airport. But this time we had to check in at the hotel, which was not near the beach. For the first few days, there wasn’t any time or weather when a beach trip would be feasible. We had set a certain day for the trip, but it dawned cold and very windy. After weighing all the particulars and connecting with some of the kids’ family friends who lived near where we wanted to go, we pretty much decided we couldn’t visit the beach this time. But then it began to look slightly better, and Bob reminded us that it was the last day we could possibly fit it in. Sean said he would be happy to drive the two of us. So we set off for Laguna Beach, after discussing all of the possibilities and arranging rides in three cars. It turned out to be a great idea! The wind died down, and enough sun came out to make us aware of the need for sun protection. We paddled at the edge of the waves and relaxed on our towels in the sand. Sean, who had not brought bathing trunks, dived in wearing his jeans and shirt. Two days later, he mentioned that his wallet was not yet fully dry. He had not thought of it as he reached for the waves. But he said it was definitely worth it!

Street Talk, Suite Talk by Anna Myers

UPDATE FROM MISSOURI Charles Frost Nov. 1, 2008 Dear Ones, Dance and Poetry About Inner-City Boston: Derek forwarded a review of Anna Myer's "Street Talk, Suite Talk" that aired on WGBH/TV last Thursday night. The program articulates perceptions of Boston's less peaceful boroughs (Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan). His daughter Jeremy-Ruth Revilock-Frost is the blond girl dressed in black who passes the camera from right to left at the beginning of the review. She has been a member of the Anna Myer Dancers for over five years and teaches dance groups in Melrose and Lowell, MA, and at Dean College in Franklin, MA. The Anna Myer company, based in Cambridge, MA, performed three times Friday for school kids, with two public performances scheduled for today. Mayor Thomas Menino is the patron of these performances, which were staged in Dorchester, possibly at the UMass campus there. Click here for a link to the review. Then scroll down and click on the entry for "Street Talk, Suite Talk." The link requires the ITunes player on your PC (which can be installed free if you don't have it). The Halloween Heist That Wasn't: As usual last Friday I went to the local community college and warmed up the closed-circuit TV system to connect with my class in Atlanta, MO, 30 miles south of Kirksville. By 0815 I was primed to teach a lesson in criminal justice, but no students reported to the classroom there. Several hours later I received an e-mail from the counselor at Atlanta. He explained, "Sorry about today. The students were locked out of the classroom this morning and couldn't find me. All the candy for the elementary school parade is in that room, so I thought it prudent to keep it locked." You just have to guard that candy from those voracious teenagers! Back to Kansas City: Janice is to give a follow-up workshop to KCMO math teachers next Friday and Saturday. We'll give you a full report on the two trips to the Big City in the next issue. Lots of love. Charlie and Janice

Click here for Part 2 of the November-December 2008 Muse.
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