Sunday in the garden and at the ball park

Hi Family, Charles and I had a wonderful Sunday, so, I thought I would blog about it. The weather was just right to be outside all afternoon with bright sun and a nice breeze. On Saturday, I went to the store for fertilizer, potting soil, container pots and some ideas for our front yard. Thanks to Mom I had some seeds to use either in the ground or in the pots. I was also tempted at the store to buy tomato plants and some inpatients . Both the inpatients and tomato plants managed to make it into my cart and into my car to come home with me, along with all the other essentials for gardening in the NC red clay soil.

Also thanks to Lisa's Christmas gifts, I donned my slogger's (red gardening shoes), pink gardening gloves, old jeans and a white t shirt and hat. Charles's tilled up the ground for me in the spots I wanted to plant, but I still had to dig a bit more into the clay. I added potting soil and fertilizer to everything I planted. I think I got hang of using the potting soil more towards the end of the day, so, I think those plants and seeds might do the best in the clay. I chose to put seeds in the big containers, a mix of seeds in the front bed (as a trial and error, to see what sprouts) and the inpatients in between the monkey grass in the front bed as well. The tomato plants are on the side of the house with the most sun. My Sunday gardening plan was a success, I got everything done I wanted too. The next step will see what grows! haha! Oh... I also put some inpatients at the mailbox with the cosmos. Hopefully (crossing my fingers) I can share pictures of my successes later! If I shared pictures now, it would just be pictures of the ground! haha!

After gardening, we went to the Durham Bulls baseball game with our neighbor friends and their friends from Michigan, near Ann Arbor. We sat at near the first base line. Not much action on the field, so Monique (neighbor friend) and I chatted a lot. Of course, we enjoyed some ball park food and beers. After the 7th inning stretch and little action, we left in the 10th inning, only later to find out the Bulls pulled out the win after we left! Oh well... The group had dinner at Tyler's Pub in the Tobacco Campus, which is an old tobacco factory that now houses restaurants and offices. We dinned outside and stayed until it was too dark to see our food anymore. It was one of the best Sundays I have had in a long time!

Lil Cronley kids update

Here stands Lily waiting her turn to practice her moves during the ballet dress rehearsal. Her first recital is this Saturday.
Here is Raymond's creation: a robot made from household items on a list from Cub Scouts' "Genious Project" Clever use of a milk jug head, cereal box body covered hanger arms, paperclip fingers and Gatorade legs.

Sunday Kzoo Gazette Article about Mom's play

Civic provides satire, nostalgia and elegance in 'The Women'
Theater review
“The Women” — Presented by the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre. Director: Preston Misner. Continues at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, April 20-21, April 27-28; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19; 2 p.m. April 22, Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313 or www.kazoocivic.com.
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By Mark Wedel
Special to the Gazette

The Kalamazoo Civic Theatre’s staging of the 1936 Clare Booth Luce satire “The Women” is one giant confection of femininity.

With perfect period costumes, an elegant set of art deco design with a background of translucent fabrics, sophisticated swing and ballads of the ’30s, and a cast of 40 women, Friday night saw the theatrical equivalent of a sweet towering cake — some of it, due to authentic period undergarments, unabashed cheesecake.

Credit goes to the chefs, director Preston Misner, scenic designer David Kyhn, costume/hair/makeup designer Barbara B. Moelaart and lighting/sound designer George Eric Perry.

It looked sweet, but under the frosting were some spicy, crusty and sharp flavors and textures.

Luce’s play exposes the claws — in the color of “Jungle Red,” the nail polish favored by the main characters — of upper-class New York society women. They spend their idle lives staying in fashion, improving their looks and worrying about the only means they have to keep their status, their husbands.

Their only pleasure comes from what the only unmarried independent intellectual of the group, Nancy (Anne Fackler), calls “orgasm by gossip.”

Mary (Renee Smith) is the happiest in her group of friends. Her life seems normal, her fashions tasteful, her behavior gracious. So when her catty friends find that her husband has been cheating on her, with a common shop girl, they explode in glee.

Of course Mary finds out about the affair, and at the same time she finds that everybody knows. This leads to a series of confrontations, catfights, divorce vacations to Reno and two more years of fighting that lasts more than two hours on stage.

The dialogue is dense with lines that range from comic passive-aggressive to vicious. That and its populous cast, many with small walk-on roles giving hilarious lines meant as background chatter, makes “The Women” seem like a Robert Altman film.

For all that clever and sometimes subtle dialogue to work, perfect delivery is essential. That wasn’t always the case Friday night, but about half of the 40 actresses were making their Civic debut, and many of those were on stage for their first time anywhere.

Among the main characters were several standout performances. Michele Sobota as Sylvia was vile and vicious as the queen of the gossips. She carried herself in insane fashions (What the heck was that on her head, an overturned bowl on top of an orange turban?) with a dash of imperious Joan Crawford attitude.

Bethany Banner as the always pregnant and child-hating Edith, and Mary Jassick as the always remarrying Countess De Lage, provided many of the moments that got massive laughs from the audience. Kelly Campbell was a sharp gold-digging minx as the woman who steals Mary’s husband.

Gold-digging minx? Can we use such terms in our era? “The Women,” for its time, was a sharp satire of women who were too dependent on men, with an extra Depression-era dig at the high-class folks, but it is very much a product of the 1930s.

However, the Civic uses this to add to its production’s nostalgic charm and humor, including having all the characters smoke (unlit prop cigarettes, of course, or else the theater would’ve been as smoky as the Green Top on a Friday night) and casting maids straight out of a ’30s film, smiling and mincing about in formation as they clear the stage between scenes.

Kalamazoo Gazette Article about Mom's Play

I was IM'ing with Mom just a bit ago about her play opening this weekend, then going on for the next 2 weekends. She told me see is wearing a BRIGHT WHITE wig and all the actresses in the cast are getting their nails painted a version of red for the all the performances! She chose Jungle Red! Break a leg, Mom.

Here is last Sunday's Gazette article about the play. Mom told me that we should be able to read the review on in Sunday's paper as well.

Easter from CC and Charles

Hello there... Charles and I spent Easter Sunday in Enfield, NC, where his grandmother, Mama, lives. It is a small town known for its famous Aunt Ruby's peanuts. Now when I say small, I am talking smaller than South Haven. Charles and his siblings would spend a couple of weeks in the summer there, so I liken Enfield to the summers we all spent in South Haven with Nana and Papa.
I was glad to spend Easter with some family. I thought of all past Easter dresses I wore and the few years I wore an Easter bonnet. No Easter bonnets at the church service I was at. I thought for sure I would see one. At the church service, we stood out like sore thumbs amongst the regulars at Enfield Bapist. But do think we were the best looking people there. Charles wore his seersucker suit with red and white bow tie! I wore cream pants with big cuffs at the bottom with Lisa's Ann Taylor pink linen jacket with matching pink shoes! Here we are!



After church, we had lunch at Mama's. Julia had an Egg Hunt afterwards. We watched some of the Masters. Visited a little more, then went back home. Thank goodness for the sun, because it was a chilly day!

Here are the rest of the Easter pictures taken by Katherine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRADY HENNS SPIGIEL

It's April 5th and Brady was bornded. Happy Happy to you.
Luff ewe, nanamama and Tom

1st Anniversary in Washington DC

Welcome to our Home at Mt Vernon. May I introduce you to my husband, Mr. George Washington and I am Martha Washington. We have a wonderful view from the piazza of the Potomac River, let me show you... haha...April Fools!

It was no April Fool's joke, that we spend our 1st anniversary in Washington DC over the weekend. :) Charles and I took off Thurs afternoon to head up to Washington DC and stayed through Sunday. We were lucky enough to crash at Charles's cousin's "English Basement" for the entire weekend. Liz and Justin, Liz is Charles's cousin and Justin is her husband, live in Adams Morgan and both work at DC area museums. There is so much to "blog" about, but I wanted to get the link the pictures up as soon as I could. The pictures tell the chronological story of our trip. There are captions on the pictures as well to explain where and what we will looking at.

The short version of the trip on my end goes like this... my favorite by far is the Holocaust Museum, followed by the "feel" of the city and having a good mix of planned stops and not so planned stops. But of course, the best part above all, was that Charles and I went somewhere special and now have wonderful memories of our 1st anniversary.

Washington DC pictures

Mammoth vacation

Back from the Mammoth cave vacation in KY. Who knew there was so much to do in the state of Kentucky. We visited 2 bourbon distilleries, Buffalo Trace (offered as drink at CC's wedding last year) and Heaven Hill, top shelf stuff mostly single barrel, very smooth. Weather was great. The only day it rained was the day we were in the caves. We took the 4 hour 4 mile tour. Beautiful and relaxing, calves were sore the next day. We made a promise not to eat at any fast food or restaurant from home and we did great finding local place with great food and friendly service. One lady called Brian "Sugar". We also went to Nashville to check out the local scene. Found a few Hooter girls for Brady and a Elvis siteing. We got home on Friday and did "stuff" around the house. Brady had baseball practice and the weather was great so I got a jump on the planting season. Loved your post Kelly. Hopefully Dad will post and give us his "take" on the trip. You look great in that blk and wht dress. Happy 1st anniversary CC and Charles!! Luff ewe all, Lisa