Petit Four

Petit Four is French for "small oven," but it is also the name of a "bite sized" confectionery. Actually it is more like three bites. This afternoon I drove Charlene to her hair appointment in Hastings and on the way home we stopped at Emily's Bakery. She picked up six Petit Four's she had ordered for me. Every time we go to Hastings she calls to see if Emily's has any Petit Fours. Usually they don't, but today they did. They don't stock them, but they occasionally get an order for them and always make a few extra.

My history with Petit Fours goes back to the 1950's. I was in high school and working down town in the same office where my mother worked. I passed the Federal Bake Shop twice each afternoon going to and from the bus stop to work and they always had Petit Fours. I dearly loved them and still do. I got one nearly every afternoon. They are super sweet. Charlene and I split one as soon as we got home and it immediately took me back to Madison Avenue in Downtown Memphis of a warm spring day. It's funny how a flavor or smell can bring back old memories. My life is full of good memories - fun times and pleasant experiences.

I like to say "God has been good to me" because He really has. It is amazing to me how many good things happen every day. But I know he hasn't really promised that we will have it easy here. In fact He promised trouble (John 16:33). But he did promise us peace. We know more then one person who is not only chronically ill, but is taking care of someone even sicker. And I think about those thirteen children who were just discovered so severely abused and were kept in cages in California. And about the people in the middle of all the countries with civil wars raging around them. And all I can say is "thank you, Lord" and pray for the  people who need His help, and try to help the few I can as I move through the world each day.

Israel/Egypt/Jordan

Just finished a long, grueling project. Since June 2018, (eight months ago) Charlene and I have been putting together a video of our trip to Egypt, Israel and Jordon. Our brother, Charlie produces a video of all his trips and it takes him a day or two. Ours took longer in part because we had no idea how to go about it.

First Charlie told us what program to use and we bought it. And it took awhile to figure out how it works. Charlie was a great help with that. But what took the longest was making all our pictures tell a story. We used pictures from several cameras and at least one of them had the date set wrong, so we couldn't use the dates on the pictures to put things in order. And we were trying to balance the length (33 minutes) against telling the whole story.

We put captions on most of the pictures so viewers would know what they were looking at. and we set it to music. Choosing, buying, downloading and inserting the music where we wanted it was hard work. And we wanted to avoid abrupt breaks when the music changed from one tune to another. I know it still doesn't sound like it should have taken eight months. I guess you would have had to be there. But it is a great flick - educational and entertaining. I'll try to figure out how to put it where you can see it.                  

Prize Winning Photo

by Charlene May

This photo was the first runner up in an annual Christmas photo contest run by our local newspaper, the Pioneer Press. It appeared in the Christmas day paper with a write up. The story is that for several years Charlene has baked Christmas cookies and we have solicited help decorating them. They take the form of Santa Claus, Christmas trees, candy canes and other seasonal paraphernalia. Then, on Christmas eve we take them to people who have to work that night, concentrating on Police Departments, Fire Stations and the like, though we include a few fast food places and the local convenience store. This year we picked up the 911 call center where our daughter-in-law is a manager.

Last year, 2017, as we were finishing up, we had one more plate of cookies left and we were passing Mickey's Diner, an iconic little place in downtown St. Paul. So we decided to drop off our plate there. That's me in the photo. As I was coming back to the car, Charlene captured this photo through the windshield. It started snowing just as I left the diner and stopped when I got to the car. The Pioneer Press loved the photo, as do we.