Welcome to Brad's online memory archives.
Look! It’s my kin!
Tara and Tim’s choir had a concert at my church last night! Beth came to see it, and is sticking around to do a little business and to hang out for the weekend! Yay!
The concert was GREAT! I got teary a few times. Such beautiful music!
LA does fit its stereotype of a city obsessed with looks. Nowhere else I’ve lived have I seen as many people with cosmetic surgery. And the ads are everywhere. Usually they’re for facelifts, botox, or lip fillers. Yesterday I saw a billboard advertising something I haven’t seen on a billboard before:
An ad for a butt-job? Hmm…
I was having a stretching session with my trainer yesterday, and she was asking me about my diet. The best I could say was: “It could be worse.” She gave me a mini-lecture about eating healthier foods. I know I should be eating healthier than I am, but I just can’t seem to get it together.
She did inspire me to eat a salad last night for dinner though. I had a bag of salad that was best by February 12, and some tomatoes and cheese and sunflower seeds. And nasturtium flowers from my garden!
It was a good healthy dinner. But I also had some leftover pizza, so in the end, it wasn’t as healthy as it could have been.
I’ve had a series of busy days and late nights, and really needed a rest, so I decided not to do any grading yesterday. I will be behind(er) on my work to start the week, but I will at least be rested.
Instead of grading yesterday, I had some quiet time at home, and a delightful lunch at an Italian restaurant. I also worked in the garden. The garden! It’s been ages since I did anything there. I mostly just watered and weeded, but it was so nice to be there. Here are some highlights:
The succulents have (mostly) weathered the cold and wet of winter:
I get volunteer nasturtiums each year now. They’ve always been yellow, but there’s an orange one this year!
Another orange flower is blooming, too. And Orange Star Flower, to be specific:
My kangaroo paw plant trials are continuing. Two the of three varieties have survived the winter. The yellow one has brighter flowers, but the red one has more flowers.
I’ve started a new trial. It’s the dwarf lavender plants I received in the mail a couple of days ago. They’ll have until the end of next Summer to impress me.
My amaryllis plants are starting their flower stalks. Yay!
The fig is leafing out:
And the rosemary is blooming.
The garden time was so restorative. Bring it on, Monday!
Yesterday, I went with one of my middle school handbell groups to a young ringers festival at Concordia Irvine. It was so fun. The kids enjoyed it.
We played for the university handbell director, and he worked with the kids a little, we did a campus tour, we learned a mass-ringing piece, and then there was a concert.
Three other middle school groups were there, plus the university groups. It was fun to watch other groups play, and I think it was really good for the kids to see them.
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Well, that is certainly a happy picture! Hi, Royuk/Pester kids! (You’re all younger than me, so I can say that.) How fun to meet up on the west coast! I see that you watched the concert from the balcony?
Have fun, Beth and Brad! Have a good rest of tour, Tim and Tara!