How the weekend got away from me

On Friday, I raced over to the high school and spent several hours in a hot and small square room selling food to masses of people at a high school basketball game. I was with the Kid and we had a really good time. Best of all is that he was the one who suggested doing it. We were in the small room with four other people, but we were busy and each person learned to stay in their spot and do the job that was nearest them. Mr. Personality was at the front window taking orders and making change. I was pulling out pizza slices and water bottles. I couldn't help but notice all the attention he was getting from other students, but one girl in particular needs to stand down. Let's just leave it at that. 

Sunday afternoon, my friend Cindy and I had lunch at the fancy new restaurant in the botanical center.  I have gotten very bad about taking photos, so I took this from their web page. It's very nice. We sat at the bar, but there was no man on a laptop at the time. If you are in Des Moines, you should eat there. 

Right outside the door, it was 91 degrees with 51% humidity. It felt fantastic! Here I remembered to take some photos. 

 They had a simple wooden fixture build that fit 3" or 4" pots. The pots sat at a little angle, like the way some spice racks do, you know? 

So then the result is a wall of plants and you can vary the colors and variegation of the leaves. Very pleasant.

This is my money shot. BWAH HA. Look at the composition! 

This little flower was growing from a tree and it appears as though a flower will come out of each of the pink sections. It would be nice to visit every day and watch that. There was a man and a woman sitting on a park bench reading from books. I mentioned that they had the right idea and we should do that! The place was cram-packed with visitors and they had a small jazz band or quartet playing, so I don't know if it was easy to concentrate on their reading, but they looked like old pros and were oblivious to the crowds around them.

After we left the warm plants, we headed over to the civic center and just LOOK at the fantastic seats we had!! Close, but not too close and almost center stage. This was a show called The Gershwin Experience and it was phenomenal. I've been told not everyone loves classical or "vintage" music, so I will just gush about how amazing it was and leave the details. But don't think I can't go on and on about how much I love seeing live performances of classical music as well as the classics. Oddly enough, I don't really enjoy live concerts unless they are orchestra, symphony, etc.

Here is a good photo of Cindy. The jacket is so striking. But I sort of messed it up.

OK, I lied. At the concert, there was a camera focused on this guy's fingers. The video looked like it was sped up to a crazy, cartoon-like frenzy, but the video was in real time. This guy is a Gershwin expert and he plays each piece without sheet music. The music gets started around the 4-minute mark, but the beginning of this video tells a bit about Gershwin and the piece, which is Rhapsody in Blue. It is obviously done without the orchestration here, so the soaring and most lovely bits are missing.

Finally, later in the evening, we celebrated birthdays: granddaughter and great-grandma, both in the photo. One is calm, one is excited. One is 7, one is 83. I'll let you sort it out.

Here's the cute cupcake for the younger one. This aptly named cupcake is called 'The Princess.' The rest of us had delicious, fancy, grown-up cupcakes.

Saturday was given over to lots and lots of snow, completely unexpected by me. That irritated me, but it enabled me to get my housework done. So...win?