Waitting

Dear Aunt Lucy,

I'm writing this on my phone, from the (very long) lineup at the US
border. I'm going down to talk with a friend/colleague in Bellingham about a research grant I'm planning to submit at the beginning of October. (Update, we ended up deciding to delay this submission to the next deadline, in February, which will give me lots of time to get everything polished. But I still have another proposal that's due Sept. 14.)

I offered to make the cake for Lou and Rob's wedding, so last night I
made 3 square feet of spongecake and 4 batches of buttercream
frosting, going through 3 pounds of butter and 30 eggs. Two more
pounds of butter went into the puff pastry, and I need to buy at least
a quart of rum tidouse the spongecake layers with.

The border wait makes me really angry. They have to eventually process
everyone by the end of the day, so having long wait times doesn't save
them any money. But it wastes thousands of person-hours every day, not
to mention all the gas we burn while creeping forward.

On Sunday I went with Teresa and Denis on a 'Slow Food Bike Ride'
around Chilliwack. We saw a goat farmm and a modern dairy farm (the
cows stay safely in the barn and the grass is brought to them as
silage). Also bees, Herefords, wine.

Mom is doing very well. But after she has the knee surgery she won't
be able to do stairs for several months. It's nice to have long
advance notice of this so they can make plans for it. If they stay in their house Mom will be stuck inside for the whole time - one option would be for them to rent a convenient apartment for those months, then move back as soon as Mom can manage the stairs.

Better stop writing this as we're finally getting close to the border.

Later - Aug. 31: I'm back from Lou's wedding. It was lovely, very informal, with food brought by all the guests. My cake was promising to be a big mess (weather too warm for the buttercream frosting), but it all came together well at the end. Mom is getting around very well with her walker for short distances and the push wheelchair for long ones.

Love

Rosie