Preparing for the ND Musical Fundraiser

Am listening to the Rolling Stones documentary "Gimme Shelter" (1970) which is on Documentary Heaven to keep me energized while I write this post. At the Altamonte Free Concert in CA there were four births and four deaths. A Hell's Angel is being interviewed now.

Last nite Ada and Rich Fleisher and I drove to Chris's Jazz Cafe for the first set of the Bad Plus. Lotsa great music from their new CD "Made Possible."

The only violence that erupted when TBP played was me diving with gusto into my French Onion Soup.

Dave King and Reid Anderson were schoolmates in Minnesota. Ethan lived in neighboring Wisconsin. Must ask him how they hooked up.

The only instruments they bring to nightclubs are: Dave King's cymbals. They took the Amtrak from NY to Philly. Before the first set, Ethan sat at our dark table.

Unmistakable Ethan, always in a suit. Will he wear one tomro at our Musical Fundraiser?

Sarah got to my house at about 3:30 pm today. We had no time to spare. She'd emailed me a list of ingredients to buy at the Giant. I ended up making about 6 trips there, but it's only 5 minutes away. Lucky we're not on an island in Alaska.

On my fifth and sixth trips there whom should I see but my former psychiatrist Larry.

I was picking up my rx for magnesium oxide from the pharmacy, telling Bob the pharmacist that Kidney Clinic wants me to up my mag ox.

And then I saw Larry. In the past, I avoided him, feeling he was responsible for my kidney failure. Long story, but I no longer feel that way.

This is not Larry, but is a physician at their family practice unit. I just needed a foto. Larry is pushing 80 yrs old.

"Hi Larry," I said. "You're looking good. Anything new with you?" He was pushing a shopping cart and heading toward the aisle with the eggs and cheese and peanut butter.

"Ruth," he said, "nice to see you."

He used to get flustered when he'd run into me in public places b/c he didn't tell me my kidneys were getting worse until a year after the fact.

Guess he knows I never sued him. I told him about my kidney transplant from taking lithium, forgot to mention that my BP had gone away, but it was good to see the guy.

Then I went off to buy some salad material. Ed, the produce man, always helps me get cartons. We'll cart the food over to the Warminster house in the Dole salad cartons, which are my favorite.

I need a foto of me for two newspaper articles I'm working on. Scott took this one in his empty white bedroom. It's probly the best recent foto on record.

We had lotsa help getting the food ready.

Sister Donna from Hatboro helped a lot. Sarah was very proud of Donna as she just began jogging - she's up to 11 minutes, which is great. Sarah ran in the Broad St Half-Marathon with Donna's daughter Nikki.

Here's Sarah pouring out the chocolate batter for Chocolate-Covered Strawberries.

Main course is Cold Poached Salmon topped with Cucumber Sauce and Curried Chicken Salad, where Sarah pan-roasted the curry powder. When I told Judy, my friend who just moved to Colorado, she said, You know, curry powder is really a blend of many spices.

She and her ex-husband Andy had lived in Pakistan where they both learned to cook Indian/Pakistani foods.

Her husband had manic-depression and there were no drugs at the time to help him.

Sarah chops up the cukes. She looks a lot like Donna. I used to look like the girls but now I look like this

My men's tank top I bought at the shore. Love it!

Sarah's bag - sorry about the blur, folks - says Official US Olympic bag, from when she covered the boxing matches in London for NBC. She was a researcher. She also was a researcher for Scott Jurek's running memoirs "Eat and Run."

I asked her to get an autographed copy for Ada and Rich, since Rich is a daily runner. Is it five miles?

This is what my fridge looks like. The roasted carmelized carrots are incredible.

Choc-covered strawberries drizzled with white chocolate. Gorgeous!

Now, when I checked my blood sugar earlier it was 60, pretty low but not dangerous. To raise it, I imbibed many delicious normally forbidden foods.

I had four sips of wine the girls were drinking, a whole pitted date (used for an or-derve item) and my usual whole wheat pretzel.

But I really enjoyed that wine.

Drove Sarah to the J'town train station so she could go downtown and hear the second set of The Bad Plus. They'll both be here bright and early tomro morning for the fun day.

Motto: Be Prepared.

This is the great Keith Jarrett. Ethan went out to his house and interviewed him.