Why are my teeth purple?

Hint: it's got something to do with what I'm eating. Please muse on this while I blab on.

The phone rings. Caller ID says Unknown Name, Unknown Number. I pick it up cuz I know who it is. International calls do not say his name which, for the record, is Daniel Deming.

The moment I pick it up I hear them both laughing on the other end. They're in Venice on Day Four of their honeymoon. Rome has tiny cars. And scooters. One pope and a Sistine Chapel more magnificent than they'd ever expected.

Everything exceeds their expectations. They are giddy w/lack of sleep, waking up early to tour, and with food such as they've never tasted before. One of their 30 tour people hails from Edmond, OK, where Dan's dad lived and where his sister Sarah is now visiting since today is Dad's 63rd b'day, were he still alive. Sarah is keeping her stepmom company over the sad occasion of his first birthday after his death.

How well we know such things, Dear Dad, who would be 88 this May 4 had not a brain tumor swept him away at 59.

When I was trying to fall asleep last nite in the motel at Cape May, NJ, I said to Scott, I'm gonna meditate on Absence. The absence of my ex-husband and the absence of former boyfriend Simon Baniewicz.

The human mind doesn't seem capable of knowing what to do when people leave for good. Pictures in the mind is the best I can do. Lying in the dark and filling the canvas of my mind with images and pretend conversations. Talking to Simon about Dan's wedding, about visiting him in his Bensalem bungalow, and the latest in cancer research.

He had a beautiful soothing voice. Where is that voice now? How he loved his weather machine tacked to his backyard tree. "Come on over," he would say. "I'll pick some figs for you."

Scott and I rented bikes for our three-day trip to Cape May. You'd have thought we were in China! All sorts of people rode bikes, old folks, young folks, tall people, fat people, fathers carrying babyseats with helmeted kids inside. Since I'm short, I got the smallest bike I could find but still my feet didn't touch the ground. I had to take a leap of faith pedaling and would find myself swearing "C'mon, dammit, get that other foot up there and pedal!"

Cape May was a mob scene. We headed out early every day so we wouldn't have to wait in lines to eat or to park. At the Tomato Festival, I bought my favorite beverage: real lemonade. Even now, as I sit here, I'm drinking freezing cold water with fresh-squeezed lemon. Pucker up!

Having bought too many blueberries I just boiled em now, added some lemon, and served it over Sarah's granola. A nice healthy dessert.

For a REAL TREAT, read my daughter Sarah's blog about her brother's wedding. She'll tell you about the toast she made. We Demings are True Originals!