Surprising a Long-Time Friend

Susan and I haven't seen our friend Susan Koozin in around 25 years. We all used to live in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where we did theatre (acting together, being directed in plays by one another) and became great friends. When Susan K.'s husband, Tim, a music professor, got a job at the University of Houston, they moved to Houston. We have stayed in touch via social media, but we haven't visited in person since they moved away.

Until this weekend.

(Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Susan K. has made quite a name for herself on the theatre scene in Houston. Recently Susan M. and I saw on Facebook that Susan K. would be playing the lead role in a play at the Alley Theatre, a major regional theater in Houston. She and I looked at each other, paused, and said, "Should we go?"

So we bought tickets to the play, bought plane tickets, and made hotel reservations. We didn't tell Susan K. that we were coming ... we just went. The Lancaster Hotel is right across the street--so once we had taken a Lyft from the airport to the hotel and checked in (Friday afternoon), we walked only a few yards to supper at Birraporetti's and then just down the sidewalk to the theater.

The play was a new stage adaptation of Agatha Christie's murder mystery The Mirror Crack'd, and Susan K. played the lead role, Miss Marple, the amateur sleuth who solves the mystery. Even had we not known Susan K., Susan M. and I would have loved the show. It had great production values, the acting was impressive, and the mystery was engaging (and new to us because we had never read the novel).

After the show, we went out into the alley and waited by the stage door. When Susan K. emerged, Susan M. called out her name; and when it registered with Susan K. just whom she was looking at (us!), she had the greatest reaction of surprise!

Kevin, Susan K., and Susan M. outside the stage door in the alley of the Alley Theatre. The surprise was a success!

Susan K. autographed our program, signing as "the other Susan Lynn" (both she and Susan M. have the same middle name).

A bonus: our friends Chad and Audrey Donner live just a couple hours north of Houston, so we arranged to see them, too, while we were in the area. In fact, Chad and Audrey reserved a room at the same hotel ... and bought themselves tickets to the show Friday night!

However, we didn't get to see much of them until yesterday. We had breakfast together at the hotel, visited the Downtown Aquarium, and enjoyed cocktails and snacks at the Lyric Bar in the afternoon. In the evening, we joined them for drinks at Gloria's Latin Cuisine.

downtown Houston

Susan M. and Kevin

Ron, Susan K., Kevin, Susan M., and Tim

Susan K. had shows at 2:00 P.M. and 8:00 P.M. yesterday. When we parted Friday night, she said that we should meet her at the stage door around 4:30 P.M. after her first show the next day (yesterday), and she would take us to a restaurant to meet up with Tim and with Susan K.'s dad, Ron Oltmanns, who happened to be in town from Las Vegas, Nevada, where he now lives. What a treat: Susan M. and I knew Ron, too, from our Grand Forks days because we were all members of the same church.

Susan K. drove us to The Original Ninfa's, where Ron and Tim were already waiting. The food was great, but the company was even better. It was so fun to catch up and notice how easily we picked up right where we had left off a couple decades earlier. The time together was way, way too brief, but it was all a bonus anyway. We're so grateful that Susan K. could make time for us in between shows.

Many thanks to Chad and Audrey for driving us to the airport this morning on their way back home. It was an impromptu vacation that lasted just for a night, a day, and a morning; but it was a terrific weekend with terrific people.

Entirely Lemon

One of my friends, Weston, loves lemons.  One day he and I went out for dinner, and I watched him eat the lemon wedges that were served as garnish.  He sucked the juice out of them and then consumed them, peel and all.  I mentioned that I have made some tasty lemon-based food for some of the Scandinavian Saturday suppers in our household, and he has been pestering me ever since to make something lemony for him.  So tonight I did.

At home I made the lemon mousse that was part of this supper last year.  Then I brought it and a bunch of other ingredients over to his place to make the rest of a lemon-themed supper for him and his fiancée to enjoy: sautéed chicken breasts covered in paper-thin lemon slices and simmered in lemon juice, wine, and garlic; multi-colored spaghetti with a pasta sauce including lemon juice and Parmesan and Asiago cheeses; and roasted kale drizzled with olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and lemon juice.  After the lemon mousse for dessert, we enjoyed a lemon liqueur over ice.  It was all very good, especially to lemon-loving Weston (for whom I even brought extra lemons for him to snack on while I was cooking).

I got a strange look from the grocery store employee whose check-out lane I used.

Suzanna's 12th Birthday!

Our oldest child is now 12 years old. Suzanna has been looking forward to this day for a long time, not only for the usual reasons (e.g., looking forward to the individual attention, to receiving gifts, to getting to choose the meals for the day, etc.) but for three others particularly tied to being 12 years of age:

1. A 12-year-old child, according to current vehicle safety regulations, may sit in the front passenger seat of a car. (Did you know that children younger than that ought to sit in the back seat? Susan and I have enforced that with our kids, so Suzanna has been eager for the "privilege" of sitting in the front.)
2. A 12-year-old child can be certified and hired as a babysitter, a job that Suzanna has been eager to hire herself out to do. (The American Red Cross provides babysitter training to children as young as 11. Susan and I thought it was 12 and have had Suzanna wait until now. Oops!) By the way, Suzanna got two phone calls today asking her to babysit tomorrow night . . . jobs she would have accepted happily had we not already planned to be out of town ourselves.
3. A 12-year-old child, in our household, can get her ears pierced.

Here are highlights from Suzanna's birthday:

One of Suzanna's gifts was a digital camera, with which she was thoroughly delighted. She quickly figured out many of its special features (e.g., taking photos in sepia or black-and-white modes) and snapped photos throughout the day no matter where we were or what we were doing. (Note in this photo the length of Suzanna's hair so that you may make a comparison to her hair in upcoming photos.)

These are our friends the Donners: Chad, Ethan, Audrey, and Sullivan. Audrey and Susan were great friends during their high school years. The Donners now live in TX but are in the area visiting family for Christmas, and they dropped Ethan off at our house for a play date in the morning and then met us for dinner at Taco John's (Suzanna's choice) around noon.

Our entire family had haircut appointments this afternoon: about 4.5 hours of hair cutting before we were all shorn! Before heading to the salon, we posed for this family pic in Taco John's.

Here is Suzanna with her new hairdo and her newly pierced ears! 12 years old?! Sheesh! What a beauty.

Here are Hillary and Abigail with their new hairdos. The stylist curled their hair for them, too--snazzy!

Here is Susan with her new hairdo. The stylist straightened Susan's hair for her.

Here I am with my new hairdo. Whatevs. Suzanna's ear piercing happened after our hair cuts, after which we went out for supper at Sanford's Grub and Pub, which serves a birthday celebrant a special treat for dessert: a gigantic chocolate chip cookie heaped with three enormous scoops of vanilla ice cream, one covered in strawberry sauce, another in caramel sauce, and the third in chocolate sauce, with the whole shebang topped with (canned) whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.

After supper, we went home and played games to give ourselves time to digest the sundae from Sanford's before . . . eating Suzanna's birthday cake! She requested a brownie cake, which Susan made on a round baking stone and frosted using my mom's wonderful chocolate frosting recipe. Sinfully irresistible.

Look how excited Suzanna is to be 12 years old! And to own her own digital camera! And to have pierced ears! And to have a family who loves her as much as we do!

Moberg Beauties

Here's a blast from the not-so-distant past: Recall that, at the beginning of this month, our friend Audrey (Susan's pal during high school) surprised us with a visit? Well, she recently e-mailed us a couple fun photos from that afternoon. Audrey is a graphic designer (with her own business), so she's handy with the photo editing software and such. Here's what she did with the photos that she took while here:

Susan, Abigail, Hillary, and Suzanna

Hello and Goodbye

The doorbell rang just as we were wrapping up dinner today, and Hillary went to the door. We heard her talking to a woman who said that she was here to see Hillary's mommy. So Susan went to the door and immediately started screaming! But they were good screams. It was a surprise visit from Audrey, Susan's dear friend from their high school days. Audrey's husband Chad had to stay behind at their home in TX due to work commitments, but she and their two sons are in the area for a couple weeks visiting family. Audrey had just been out to dinner at a restaurant nearby and stopped by to see if we were home. She brought photos to share and got to visit with Susan and the girls for a couple hours before leaving so that Susan and the girls could get to their haircut appointments on time. We'll get together again before Audrey returns to TX, though.

Susan and Audrey

After Audrey left, there was enough time for the girls to pose at home for "before" photos to show off their long tresses prior to their haircuts. Susan brought the camera to the salon and snapped "after" photos, too. The girls said "Goodbye!" to many inches (and pounds) of hair this afternoon, but their new looks are sassy. Photographic evidence:

Hillary before . . .

. . . and after!

Abigail before . . .

. . . and after!

Suzanna before . . .

. . . and after!

Susan got her hair cut, too, although her daughters didn't snap pics of her. Trust me: her hair is sassy, too. After spending several hours together in the beauty salon either getting shorn or waiting for a relative to get shorn, the ladies were ready for supper out; so we went to El Sombrero, a terrific Mexican restaurant in town with wonderful chips and salsa to entertain (and sting!) our tongues before the arrival of the meals. My dish was especially delicious: chili relleno, tamale, enchilda, taco, and chalupa, all served with Mexican rice and refried beans. For under $9! Incredible. And, of course, the blondes got to show off their new 'dos to a packed house at the restaurant. It was a good end to the day!

Ringing in the New Year

We were back from our Christmas traveling one day (the 29th) when we hit the road again (the 30th). It was Suzanna's birthday, but we were making her share some of the focus with our friends! Susan's high school friend Audrey, her husband Chad, and their son Ethan were in Fargo, ND from Texas, visiting friends. So we took Suzanna to Olive Garden for a birthday lunch (joined by Susan's sister Cassie), then met Audrey and company at the mall so the kids could play in the dinosaur-themed playland while the adults visited.

Then we went to Media Play to buy some CDs for Suzanna, who received a CD player (from my sister Sandy) as one of her birthday presents. Then we drove to Harwood, ND (just north of Fargo) to have supper with our friends the Zanders. We usually stop there and spend the night each December on our way to Mandan and Dickinson for Christmas celebrations on Susan's side of the family. This past year, not having traveled that direction, we missed our annual Zander Christmas stay-over. This time we ate supper and opened gifts without spending the night. Now we MUST start an annual tradition of having the Zanders come to our house every summer--so that we'll see them more often, and so that Janelle isn't the only one doing all the cooking and cleaning for one of our get-togethers.

We were back in EGF for New Years Eve. That night we attended a party at our friends the Olsons' home. They had many couples with young children there, so it was . . . loud! The food (baked potato bar) was delicious, the kids had a blast playing, and I enjoyed participating in a darts tournament in Doug's office/bar downstairs! We got home in time for the girls to do the countdown to the new year at 10:00 P.M. ("It's the new year in Newfoundland and Labrador"), then sent them to bed. I then put in an appearance at another party (of adults, this one) in order to see my friend who recently moved to Chicago and was back for the weekend.

I was back before midnight so that Susan and I could crack open the champagne, enjoy some snacks, and welcome the new year. Here's hoping for great things in 2006!