Easter Sunday was nice and the verdict.

No really Easter was nice. I had to attend 3 different locations but aside from driving to my sister's house, which took about 4 minutes, then driving back, into the driveway and walk next door to Arlene's, go to the third floor where she lives. Then down to the first floor where her brother and family live. It was crowded with children ranging from 1 year to 12. Their parents then my generation, which is now the grandparents generation. Arlene and I were the oldest people there. I didn't think about this until I started writing this entry. I can imagine some extended family member who I had not met asking, "Hey who's the old bastard in the chair?"

Then there were the 3 dogs. Mid size dogs with three different personalities. One very shy and retiring. The next, friendly and he calmly hung around with us while the third was a character. He had a lot of energy and was quite friendly. His name was Nico. As soon as Nico discovered that I knew the best spots to scratch we were buddies. He tried to lick me to death then jumped on my lap and he's no lap dog. He must go 40 lbs. plus. The one and two year olds were cute and well behaved and quite entertaining. 

I ended up leaving the third floor with a doggie bag consisting of a cannoli, 4 Italian style anise cookies, very much like my mother used to make. I had to refuse a few other tasty items then back up to Arlene's. We settled in the living room and ended up watching The Ten Commandments. One of her daughters was doing some important stuff on her laptop. She's the one attending Harvard. I never thought I would know someone attending Harvard after graduating from Tufts. I'm at the point in life that has told me, what she is shooting for with all this education, is something that she has explained to me before and will explain to me again. All I can say is it is connected to the computer and teaching and that's all I need to know at this point. Her other daughter showered and went to bed.

So we watched the rest of the movie. I have to say it was quite amusing. Now let's not get our religious undies in a bunch. I'm only talking about the movie. It was a big, 1950's Hollywood production with Charlton Heston Edward G. Robinson, Anne Baxter, Yul Brenner, Yvonne De Carlo and so on. There was much over acting, corny dialog, seemingly silly casting, particularly with Edward G. Robinson. I couldn't help but think of him as a gangster see! All he needed was a cigar stub in his mouth. It was a very colorful film and you could see that they spent money on the sets. The dialog was easy pickens and we chuckled our way until near the end, relatively speaking, It was a long movie, on for around 4 hours.

I left Arlene's with another doggie bag of pizza, lasagna and 4 frittatas. I'm not sure if it's Italian, Mexican, Spanish or what. There are many similar words as all three are Latin based. Any way my mother made some thing very similar with eggs, asparagus and who knows what else. The only real difference is size. My mother made them frying pan size on a burner and Arlene's daughter made them in the oven in a small cup cake pan. I can add all that to the 2 pieces of ricotta pie and hunk of chocolate cake from my sister. 

When I got home there was still about 40 minutes left in the movie and I watched the rest. I can enjoy a movie for several reasons. I can flat out just like it or like something about it or it can so bad that it's actually quiet amusing. I used to go to a theater in Cambridge in the late 70's early 80's that would show these films from time to time. So bad they're good. When I was a kid we used to get laughs from all the bad American and Japanese science fiction movies. Almost all of the Godzilla movies except for the first one, which scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. It was made in 1955 or 56 and I saw it a couple of years later on TV. 

So it was a fairly long, but good day. It was nice to see a big family crowd at Arlene's brother's place. I first ate the anise cookies the next day. Then a few hours later I went back for the cannoli and it was spectacular. None of this food is real good for you but it is so good.

As has become my habit here on blogger, a blog may be written over several days. Such is the case with this entry. I was ready to publish but then  while I was out running a few errands I heard that the jury in the Boston Marathon trial had come back with their verdict. It was as everybody expected, guilty on all counts. It's hard to put feelings into words. You react to these horrific events that have happened here and throughout the rest of the country on different levels. From having it happen near you to being directly affected by it. As I have said before I did not know any of the people killed or injured but it turned out I did have some sort of connection through Arlene because her kids knew and went to school with Krystle Campbell. As children they played at each others homes. So by a couple of degrees of removal it did affect me. As I drove home today I once again passed by The Campbell family home knowing that they were all in the court room in Boston, only 6 or so miles away. We have always lived in scary times but now with these kind attacks on our home turf, you really have to wonder about what could happen no matter where you go. Scary times indeed.

I didn't intend to end on this kind of note but you never know how things can twist and turn. So I'll finish up by saying weather wise it's pretty crappy. If I were a weatherman I'd call it partly crappy with increasing crappyness tonight, followed by widely scattered crap in the morning. We're even getting a bit of snow. How nice.

I'm outta here.