Sunday, May 5

May 5th...happy cinco de mayo.

Slept late this morning, until around 8 a.m. Skipped my exercises after breakfast., as usual on Sunday. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30. Then he put color in my hair, in anticipation of a haircut appointment on Tuesday.

Did the usual Sunday routine after that...washed a couple of loads of laundry, programmed the DVR, read the Sunday newspaper, etc.

For lunch, I made a recipe of macaroni and cheese...boiled macaroni in water to which I added diced bell pepper; made a sauce of milk and three cheeses (low-fat American, a couple of slices of provolone, and some Monterey Jack), plus pepper, no-sodium seasoning, and paprika. Poured the sauce over the cooked macaroni, and put the dish in the oven, along with a dish of leftover sweet potatoes, and a dish of English peas. Later, I heated buttered French bread.

The meal was ready right at noon, but we were delayed getting to the table, because a cousin of Hubbie's called just then, and they talked for quite a while. I try to avoid phoning folks at meal times, but maybe others think that's the most likely time to find people at home.

The meal was particularly tasty today, and Mother and Hubbie even commented on it. Mother, of course, is really fond of macaroni and cheese, so she ate two helpings. I was surprised, though, when Hubbie also had a second helping, since this is usually not his favorite dish.

After lunch, we decided to watch movies borrowed from the library. The first one we saw was called "The Kite Runner." This 2007 film is based on a best-selling novel about two young Afghan boys who are inseparable until a terrible incident tears them apart.

One boy flees with his father to America, where he grows up. As an adult, he is compelled to return to his homeland to visit a friend of his father, who is dying. This is a story of redemption. It is mostly subtitled. A very good movie.

Something about the film that was particularly interesting was the annual Kabul kite flying competition, in which teams of two boys skillfully maneuvered  kites to battle with other teams' kites, until they could cut the strings of opponents.

The first time I heard of this type of competition was when my former Literacy Council student told me about how the competitions were held in Venezuela. Competitors affix razor blades to  kite strings, then maneuver the kites close enough to a competitor's kite to cut a string. This takes a great deal of skill. The competitor who cuts the most strings is the winner, of course.

In the case of this movie, the two boys are a team in a kite flying competition, which they win by cutting the strings of fourteen competitor kites, thus winning the contest. But the win leads to a horrible incident.

We followed that movie with a a couple of episodes from the PBS series called "The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries." The stories take place in the high-mannered 1920s. This witty series features glamorous costumes, and all the color of the roaring 20s.

Hubbie accompanied Mother home afterward, and then he and I continued watching TV, including an episode of "Prime Suspect."