C'mon over and see The Belle's New Birdbath, on sale for $45 at K-Mart / Poem: The Bluejay's Day

Who is this man and why do we care?

He's Dick Boer, new CEO of Ahold (ah-hold), of Amsterdam, owners of our Giant Supermarket. Learn more about Dick here.

He's in America right now inspecting supermarkets, including the Roslyn Genuardi's, which Ahold recently bought, a new Philadelphia Giant, and best of all: OUR WILLOW GROVE Giant Supermarket.

He'll be there on Monday.

How do I know? B/c I ask questions when something looks different.

BTW, this is also how a therapist works. When a person says something strange or different, you pay attention and ask why.

Managers in white shirts and ties were helping out all over the store. I finally asked one of them in the produce aisle. He apologized profusely b/c his huge cart was blocking the way as I selected shrooms.

Then when I checked out, I mentioned it to Barb, who works at the self-checkout, and wears a pink breast-cancer ribbon.

"Do they arrive in a limo?" I asked.

"Oh, no. They're just regular guys. Funny guys, great sense of humor. The one thing in this store that they've gotta make look good are the flowers.

"When my husband and I were in Amsterdam a few years go, you find flowers everywhere - in everyone's window."

"Yeah, I said, "tulip capital of the world."

Gee, if I only worked for the newspaper, I could cover them. Can't plant myself on Monday at the Giant and wait for em to stroll in.

Or can I?

My backyard wildflowers

Sent neighbor Bill an email earlier today: Favor, please! Can you get my new birdbath out of my car?

Old birdbath which occasionally tips over when windy and....

new birthday - typo - should be birdbath - which has 4 times the water capacity as the old one. I hadn't realized it.

Old birdbath in backyard on tree stump where I can see it from my kitchen window.

Back of house w/useless deck.

Bruce Lee, 1940–1973, dead at 32.

From Wiki: Donald Teare, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by an acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic.

Scott said to me tonite, "I wanna show you something. The guys at work told me about this."

Watch this amazing video about Bruce Lee playing ping-pong with nunchucks. What dat?

When my son Dan lived here, he had an entire collection of Bruce Lee videos, which is how I discovered this amazingly talented man born w/superior coordination.

An amazing article from the Times: Surgery for Diabetes May Be Better Than Standard Treatment

There were 369 comments. Here's mine. 6 people 'favorited' it.

I was diagnosed w/insulin-dependent diabetes last year and rigorously watch my diet and also exercise daily. It's not so difficult when you consider all the horrible complications about 20 yrs after diagnosis! I couldn't believe that two prestigious journals would publish articles recommending bariatric surgery. These surgeries entail terrible complications down the road.

I DO watch my diet rigorously. My friend Bob likes to 'feed' people, which is a nice quality, but... Anyway, he brought me lots of sugar-free snacks including those Yellow Easter Peeps, marshmallow filled, plus some big chocolate muffins, and delicious looking choc chip cookies.




No way was I gonna eat these babies. I tucked em into a bag and when I went to the Bryn Athyn post office asked Maria, postmistress, if she'd like to put them out for the patrons.

Yee-ha! She said she would.

"I spose they'd like tea with it," she said.

"Nice," I said, escaping, before she discovered they were sugar-free.

Bryn Athyn Post Office, 19009, the closest PO to my house.

I fetched one of my poems from my accordion file upstairs, filed under Birds and Boyfriends. I always knew I liked this poem, but I hadn't realized how sad it was. Gee, Ruthie, gee!

THE BLUEJAY'S DAY

He lets me near
so near
I see the blue
of his tiny
throat
the web of thick musecle
pulsing beneath
the feathers
he wears like
a proud doorman.

He looks at me
then looks away
this is not the time
for intimate exchanges
for contemplative looks
his world is too quick
too episodic for me
I can't keep up

I cannot fly

He sleeps outside
his bed hard
and blinks the snowflakes
from his eyes
I huddle under blankets
my curtain hiding
the stars
from my eyes

Quietly
he swoops to a
lowlying branch
perching there
beak parted
to cry his winter song

Will he die here
under the canopy of twigs
alert
keeping watch
eyes scanning
for coming death

Warm feathers blue.